Reprinted from The Orange County Register

The village green
Ladera Ranch's Terramor will be one of U.S.' largest environmentally friendly developments

By HANG NGUYEN
The Orange County Register

You pick what shade of green you want your home to be.

That's the pitch for a new neighborhood coming soon to south Orange County.

Later this month, builders will begin construction of an environmentally conscious village of 1,260 homes called Terramor in Ladera Ranch. It is said to be one of the largest so-called "green neighborhoods" in the country.

"Terramor is certainly on the cutting edge," said David Johnston, a green construction expert hired to look at the community's earth-friendly guidelines.

The homes in this green village will come with solar panels that produce electricity. Plants that sip rather than guzzle water will dot the landscape. Builders will join a mandatory plan for recycling waste during the construction phase. Condos and traditional houses will go from the mid-$200,000 range to more than $700,000.

Michael Schrock of Newport Beach would love to buy at Terramor. Green building is important to Schrock, who became a landscape architect for a reason.

What: 1,260 environmentally friendly homes
Where: Ladera Ranch
Types: 744 will be traditional homes, 516 will be condos or town houses.
Size: From 920 to 4,330 square feet.
How much: From mid-$200,000 range to more than $700,000.
More info: Call Ladera Ranch Gallery at (949) 388-8100 or online at www.laderaranch.com. Additional information will be posted on the Web site after Thursday.

"I signed a code of ethics that says we will do everything to preserve our natural resources," he said. "That's why I became a landscape architect. My parents were hippies. I can't help it."

SEVENTIES THROWBACK

The environmentally conscious building trend emerged from the 1970s international energy crisis, said Johnston, who has advised local governments on creating green guidelines for residential building for the past decade.

Builders modestly focused on making homes more energy-efficient for the next 20 years. Truly green building wasn't really born until a decade or so ago, Johnston said.

This type of construction goes beyond energy efficiency - like the double-pane windows and low-energy dishwashers that are common in today's homes, said Rich Dooley, environmental analyst with the National Association of Home Builders Research Center.

Modern-day green building also considers the environment during the homebuilding and land development phase.

All told, less than 1 percent of U.S. homes built last year, or about 13,200 homes, were green, according to the homebuilders group. Still, it's a big change from the past. Those green homes created in 2002 equaled 70 percent of all green homes constructed from 1990 to 2001.

"We believe it's the right thing to do," said Les Thomas, president of Shea Homes Southern California, which will construct 79 green homes at Terramor.

EARTH-FRIENDLY FACETS

Green building at Terramor tackles landscaping, water supply, energy, materials and indoor air quality.

That's more extensive in some ways than the California Green Builder Program, voluntary guidelines created six months ago by California Building Industry Association, said Rob Hammon of ConSol, an energy consulting firm that helped develop the state guidelines.

The O.C. village requires homes to meet Energy Star - a voluntary program that reduces a home's energy use by 15 percent - plus another 5 percent, at a minimum. Builders will also use paints and carpets that emit lower amounts of harmful chemicals. These issues are not addressed in the state program, said Hammon, hired by two builders to help with Terramor.

One very visible green feature in Terramor is roof tiles that use the sun to make energy. This is where aesthetics and green can conflict, experts say.

Some solar panels at Terramor will blend into the roof. Others are obviously solar panels, which doesn't appeal to every potential buyer. Still, builders say that installing solar panels make sense.

"It seems like a natural thing to do, to build homes that take advantage of the amount of sunshine we get," said L.J. Edgcomb, Southern California president for Pulte Homes, which will build 75 homes at Terramor.

GREEN TAKES GREEN

Builders at Terramor reconfigured their blueprints to offset the roughly $3 to $5 more per square foot it costs to build a green abode, said Steve Kellenberg, principal at Edaw, the design firm for Terramor.

So builders designed simpler structures and will offer three home styles instead of the normal six.

Builders hope to lure homebuyers willing to pay a little more for green. The typical consumer will fork over $2,500 to $5,000 extra for green features, according to a poll by the publisher of Professional Builder Magazine.

Yet developer Rancho Mission Viejo won't heavily market Terramor as green. In a survey of potential buyers, the developer found that only 28 percent feel strongly about preserving the earth.

Terramor designer Kellenberg doesn't want the green concept to be a major part of the advertising because the community is by no means totally green.

For example, Terramor will have lawns, which Kellenberg admits are the opposite of green, metaphorically speaking, since they soak up a lot of water.

"Terramor doesn't come close to doing everything (green), but it does a lot more than high-production homes," Kellenberg said.

"If we get half-way green with 1,260 homes, we think that's much more important than being richly green with 50 homes."