“Green” Habitat Neighborhood Wins Planning Award

The Habitat neighborhood fronts a wet meadow that doubles as a city park. Image (detail) courtesy UACDC.

A low-cost, low-impact neighborhood designed by university planners, engineers and architecture students for the Washington County chapter of Habitat for Humanity is raking in awards and serving as a model for sustainable development well before ground is broken on the first home. Designed by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center in partnership with the Ecological Engineering Group in the university’s department of biological and agricultural engineering, the city of Fayetteville and McClelland Consulting Engineers, the Porchscapes project has won a 2008 “Achievement in Urban Development Award” from the Arkansas Planning Association. This award follows a 2008 ASLA Honor Award in Planning and Analysis from the American Society of Landscape Architects for Porchscapes, announced last spring.

Located on Huntsville Road next to transitional housing for Seven Hills Homeless Center, the 10-acre parcel will include approximately 43 housing units, with one-third of the land left in conservation. A wet meadow, rainwater gardens, bioswales, and pervious parking and street surfaces will absorb and treat stormwater on site, a key goal in low-impact development. Porches and “shared streets” foster community interaction.

The U.S. Green Building Council has selected the Fayetteville Habitat neighborhood as a pilot project for LEED-Neighborhood Development certification. A $23,000 grant by the University of Arkansas Women’s Giving Circle and a $464,000 grant by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission that is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency have supported the design phase.

Porchscapes is currently in the planning and engineering phase with construction slated to begin in 2009.