When people think of a new housing development, one image that springs to mind is heavy equipment grading acres, clearing the ground of all native vegetation and leveling the natural movement of the land. The neighborhood my husband is building in right now is different. It is considered a smart desert community. The homes are all energy efficient, low water usage designs. They're built with a sensitivity toward their environment. They're all set low on their lots, all single story so as to preserve their beautiful desert vistas. These practices really maximize the beauty of the desert setting because they are sensitive to the needs of the desert itself. One example of the development's success hopped right up to me today as I was photographing our home's new concrete retaining walls. Two fat jack rabbits came to see what I was doing, curious and not really afraid. My husband says there is also a fat coyote who likes to pass through the lot. These are two notoriously shy desert animals, and if they're still comfortable in this community, the community is probably doing something right.
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Looking east. The street in the distance is actually densely populated but its difficult to distinguish
the homes from the landscape. |
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Looking south. There are three homes on this street, but none impedes the view of the other and the native
vegetation is left in place. |
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| Looking north west. Would you guess you were looking at a populated neighborhood? |
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| I turned to the back of our lot and found I had a long eared friend. Can you see him? |
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| This guy was about six feet from me and happy to let me take his picture. His friend was more cautious, but they're obviously not threatened by construction. |
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| In consideration of the natural environment, this project is starting with retention walls so as to disturb as little of the lot as necessary. |
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