Bear Creek Prairie promises nature-friendly living

The indistinguishable laughs and shouts of a large crowd swept down the hall in Columbia’s Upper Crust Bakery one bright Sunday morning, as patisserie customers, real-estate aficionados and environmentalists gathered in the back ballroom to witness evidence that Columbia was at last building the Bear Creek Prairie project (BCP), Missouri’s first conservation community. Glossy orange-and-blue floor layouts of 21 cottages and townhouses covered the ballroom tables where conservation experts huddled, pointing out eco-friendly features.

Born from years of research, planning and maneuvering through government red tape, BCP, which project collaborators have begun constructing along Bear Creek on Northland Drive in north Columbia, might trigger a new trend in building custom “green” housing developments—houses designed to conserve energy, construction materials and surrounding wildlife.

For now, the plans offer a realistic solution for conserving land and reducing waste in the wake of Columbia’s recent home-development frenzy. Although conservationist building might cost more than traditional housing construction, those who do their part for the environment might also save crucial dollars in the long run with dramatically lower utility bills.

“This is a pebble to throw into the ocean and see what kind of waves and ripples it might make,” says Chip Cooper, an environmentalist in Columbia who helped plan and research the project—and who hopes to become one of its first residents. “If there’s a market for it and the pricing is acceptable and people like it and they buy it, well, then, other developers and other builders may say, ‘Hey, look at that! A lot of people like this, and it might be a good idea to do this.’”

Seedling Idea
Married Columbia couple Andy Guti and Sherri DeRousse decided in 2003 to build the development on their 17 acres along Bear Creek. Still holding onto 1960s conservation philosophies from their youth, the couple refused to sell the never-before-tilled prairie to pleading developers who planned to strip the land for construction—despite the discovery that the acreage contained 100 native plants, hidden gems in the mine of housing projects.

After digging through piles of brochures from the sustainable-community lectures they frequented, the couple agreed to chase the small chance that they might preserve the prairie and build a nestled group of housing units on a small corner of the land.

DeRousse and Guti walked through conservative communities in Colorado, California and Arizona, comparing what they saw to the advice they’d gleaned from professionals across the country, always bringing new information to St. Louis architects from Answers, Inc., who pored over floor plans, redesigning them repeatedly for four years.

Blossoming Plans
The more the couple shared their vision, the more professionals and experts volunteered to collaborate, including Matt Belcher, president of sustainable-homebuilding company Belcher Homes and national director for the National Association of Home Builders.

Belcher, who committed to designing earth-friendly houses after watching his father build a home with solar panels in the 1960s, signed on to the BCP project two years ago. After examining the thick pages of the National Association of Home Builders guidelines for building green and reviewing his successes from 14 years of building custom green homes, Belcher arranged for environment-oriented construction methods, monitoring everything from paint to floor plan to insulation, weighing each for its environmental impact.

Belcher says he is still astounded by the community welcome the project received.

“This has probably been the most forward-thinking [community]—and easier to deal with than any I’ve done,” he says. In contrast, ordinances in large metropolitan areas often cancel out one benefit with another restriction, he says. The Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission approved the development site plan unanimously, even though so many features of the design are new to Columbia.

Some features are obvious: South-facing windows maximize sunlight to reduce the need for electric lighting, and overhangs shade the windows to reduce the heat during the summer.

Housing units are clustered together as if in a geometric ant farm, minimizing the need for prairie-smothering roads. Plans for the development include a sheltered bus stop for easy access to public transportation. The development is adjacent to Bear Creek Trail, allowing residents to walk and bike with ease, and a new commercial development is planned within walking distance.

Further minimizing the need to drive, the plans include a plaza and a community building, located at the center of the development and surrounded by homes, that will feature a market, a coffee shop, laundry and mail facilities, and public gathering spaces. Belcher predicts that the central community garden will flourish from many pairs of hands tending to the crops, without the use of pesticides or any other chemicals.

Housing insulation doesn’t contain the formaldehydes or volatile organic compounds often found in cheaper insulation. Such substances emit chemicals and odors into the atmosphere, which the World Health Organization reports causes 14 times more deaths than outdoor air pollution.

BCP will direct storm water to flow above ground to the nearby Bear Creek in an even dispersal. Poor storm water management can destroy stream life, pollute drinking water, increase flooding and damage property.

Crunching numbers
Of course, the cost of building with such tender love and care added up quickly—particularly because of measures such as clearing the land by hand to avoid demolishing the prairie with bulldozers and asking for constant redesigning to save still another tree. DeRousse says they never pursued the project with plans to make a profit, but they hope that they can at least break even to stoke other builders’ interest in similar building designs.

“In mid-Missouri, it’s a challenge to compete with the traditional way that things are built in most developments and then try to do considerably more thoughtful job of it,” DeRousse says.

But Mike Reilly, an Answers Inc. architect, says that if these and other conservation homes grow popular, they will become the trendy home design.

“More and more people come into our office demanding we design houses this way,” Reilly says, estimating that 75 percent of his St. Louis customers ask for homes designed for conservation. “As soon as we reach the tipping point, the market will naturally start producing markets to compete with each other and lower the price. It’s simple supply and demand.”

Greg Steps, an energy consultant from St. Louis, says people suddenly understand they need to address how their homes use energy. BCP’s tighter insulation can mean a 30-to-50-percent decrease in heating and cooling costs, for example.

Custom-designed conservation homes cost between 2 percent and 5 percent more than traditional homes. The units in the Bear Creek Prairie project range from 900-square-foot loft units at $110,000, to houses for about $300,000. Other options include townhomes, villas and cottages—ranging from one to two stories, from two to four bedrooms and from $160,000 to more than $250,000. Guti and DeRousse currently are taking reservations for units and are still in the process of receiving and reviewing bids to determine final prices.

If BCP strikes the hearts and wallets of Columbians, Reilly says, the “growth area” north of Columbia might be ideal for another similar development.

“The public is becoming more aware of their overall living environment—not just the home itself but the entire development and how it interacts with nature,” he says. “We can afford it here in America; we just have to make up our minds to do it.”