|
|
- Info
Pushing the density envelope
| Author: |
Bradford, Susan |
| Date: |
1993 |
| Periodical: |
Builder |
| Abstract: |
If you build it, they will come. It is not a baseball field in Iowa, but affordable detached housing in a market where the median new-home price is $298,000 and land sells for $550,000 an acre. They are young professionals who would like to own new houses in Southern California's desirable Orange County, but can only afford to rent, buy shabby resales, or live an hour away. To reach these wannabe buyers, RGC (RecreActions Group of Companies) has unveiled a new planning concept that clusters detached houses at land-efficient densities of 10 to 18 to the acre. Called CourtHomes, these 860- to 1,900-square-foot houses with two-car garages will be priced from the low $100s (the cheapest new detached houses in the area currently sell in the $170s). RGC developed the concept with McLarand, Vasquez & Partners, the architecture and planning firm that designed RGC's successful-and equally innovative-attached communities. The first CourtHomes are slated to open this summer in the master planned community of Rancho Santa Margarita. CourtHomes are intended for land already zoned for multifamily development; RGC considers renters a primary market. "We aren't trying to compete with conventional single-family housing," says RGC chairman E. James Murar. "We're coming from an attached mentality. We want to drive a new market to pull people out of rentals and townhouses." |
|
