Village Verde 480 acre eco-development?

[metro]

Eco-friendly development in the works
Journal Record
By Brianna Bailey


OKLAHOMA CITY – A 480-acre mixed-use development planned for the area around Northwest Expressway just off the new section of the Kilpatrick Turnpike will include numerous eco-friendly elements and walking trails.

Renderings for the new Village Verde development show clusters of houses ringing parks with natural streams.

About 20 percent of the new development will be common areas dotted with trees, said Mike Nevard, who is developing Village Verde along with his father, Don Nevard, and homebuilder OA Garr. Kelly Parker, a national sustainability expert and chief executive of the Oklahoma City-based Guaranteed Watt Saver, is also a part of the development team.

“When we started this project, it was going to be built on green design uses,” Mike Nevard said. “We don’t have too many projects in Oklahoma City where you can actually walk out the door and go somewhere very close to get basic amenities.”

Village Verde will include shops that will be close enough for residents to walk or bike to, thanks to a system of walking trails.

The developers hope to attract a grocery and neighborhood banking center to the planned commercial development.

The development will preserve a few natural streams that are on the land, and also create new wetland areas for wildlife, Mike Nevard said.

The Oklahoma City Council approved zoning changes for the Village Verde development to move ahead last week.

The development will be built in several phases, beginning with some single-family homes within the next three to four months.

Retail space along Northwest Expressway that is part of the planned development will become a gateway to the northwest corridor of the city, developers for Village Verde said.

The large-scale new development will include several different types of housing.

Plans for Village Verde also include about 950 single-family homes, about 100 townhomes, and 25 “live-and-work” units that will have commercial space on the ground floor and loftlike dwellings on the upper level.

“Most people think of a subdivision as all houses of the same type,” Garr said. “But this development will have live and work units to smaller homes to increasingly larger homes, all connected so you can walk from any home to the village center or ride your bicycle or golf cart, all without getting on the street.”

[Kerry]

I am a little confused about the term 'mixed-use' as used in the article. If it is 480 acres but still has land-uses grouped by activity, that ISN'T mixed-use. That is no more mixed-use than calling any town mixed-use. Mixed-use is having housing built over retail and offices: not housing goes over here, and retail over there, and office on that space there. I wish people would start using terms correctly instead of using them as buzz-words.

[okclee]

This sounds like a very good suburban project, Okc needs more of these. Do we have any plans or renderings?

[dedndcrusr]

I am a little confused about the term 'mixed-use' as used in the article. If it is 480 acres but still has land-uses grouped by activity, that ISN'T mixed-use. That is no more mixed-use than calling any town mixed-use. Mixed-use is having housing built over retail and offices: not housing goes over here, and retail over there, and office on that space there. I wish people would start using terms correctly instead of using them as buzz-words.

As far as a single building is concerned, "mixed use" wouldn't apply, but for the entire housing development it might. It definitely sounds like it will have more going on than most new sub divisions currently being built. It's good to see things like this to break up the "this new neighborhood is completely walled off from that new neighborhood" mentality that seems to be prevalent around the outskirts of Okc.

[okclee]

This is a very refreshing development for Okc, and even more so in today's real estate market. If this is successful, and I hope it is, it could have a good impact on all developers around the Okc metro.

[metro]

I'm trying to get the renderings, I couldn't find a website anywhere. I'll post if I get the renderings or hopefully someone will beat me to it.

[circuitboard]

Correct me if I am wrong, but is this the area way out on northwest express that is already have problems getting tenants to fill vacant 80's cookie cutter shopping centers? I know one specifically where all american fitness is or was, that is like a vacant wasteland.

[dedndcrusr]

The article mentioned that it would be near NW Expressway and Kilpatrick, so I'm guessing it's going to be somewhere between the turnpike and Surrey Hills. Lots of land out there.

[Kerry]

As far as a single building is concerned, "mixed use" wouldn't apply, but for the entire housing development it might. It definitely sounds like it will have more going on than most new sub divisions currently being built. It's good to see things like this to break up the "this new neighborhood is completely walled off from that new neighborhood" mentality that seems to be prevalent around the outskirts of Okc.

I could pick any 480 acres space of land in OKC and voila - mixed-use. Does that mean OKC is a model of mixed-use design? Hardly. Piedmont = mixed-use, Moore = mixed-use, Warr Acres = mixed-use, Yukon = mixed-use.

[dedndcrusr]

I could pick any 480 acres space of land in OKC and voila - mixed-use. Does that mean OKC is a model of mixed-use design? Hardly. Piedmont = mixed-use, Moore = mixed-use, Warr Acres = mixed-use, Yukon = mixed-use.

I definitely see your point. I was just getting at how most new housing developments are housing only, with a car trip out onto a major road being the only way to get to anything of importance. And how one gated community is barricaded from the next, adding to the feeling of disconnect. This seems to be a more open plan, much like the older sections of OKC.

[Kerry]

I definitely see your point. I was just getting at how most new housing developments are housing only, with a car trip out onto a major road being the only way to get to anything of importance. And how one gated community is barricaded from the next, adding to the feeling of disconnect. This seems to be a more open plan, much like the older sections of OKC.

This is definately a step in the right direction but I don't like the term 'mixed-use' being applied. This is just a planned unit development. It has all the zoning and segregation of activity you would find in any town.

[krisb]

Renderings are included in a PDF on the City Council agenda from last week...okc.gov.

[metro]

Can you point me to the correct PDF krisb, I'd be happy to extract the renderings and post.

http://okc.gov/AgendaPub/meeting.asp...=0&docid=26788

[Martin]

^
look for: "(pud-1418) 11401 nw expressway from aa agricultu"

-M

[metro]

Site layout starts about page 44:

http://okc.gov/AgendaPub/cache/2/mbn...0033621369.PDF

[okclee]

Thanks for posting Metro, looks nice and unique to Okc.

[circuitboard]

Pretty interesting, hope it get's built!

[blangtang]

what would be the estimated commute time to downtown okc from there?

[SkyWestOKC]

According to Google Earth 25-30 mins.

[stlokc]

Seems to me that the intersection of NW Expressway and the turnpike could be the next "hot" growth area for NW OKC. I bet that area fills in faster than the turnpike and Council, turnpike and County Line. Better access to existing neighborhoods.

[bluedogok]

Seems to me that the intersection of NW Expressway and the turnpike could be the next "hot" growth area for NW OKC. I bet that area fills in faster than the turnpike and Council, turnpike and County Line. Better access to existing neighborhoods.

It's not the first development attempted in the general area, I worked on this one about 8 years ago.

[stlokc]

Interesting. I had forgotten about that proposal. It's been a long time since I've been on "outer" NW Expressway, do the big boxes and chain restaurants of Penn and Memorial have a presence west of the lake, by and large? If not, this area seems geographically removed enough from both Quail Springs and the Belle Isle/May Avenue area for them to make sense out there. Sigh. Sprawl. But I do find reason to hope in the plans shown in this thread. Many cities have successful new urbanism type projects in outer suburban areas. "New Town in St. Charles" is a Truman-show (really, Seaside, FL) inspired development in outer St. Louis. Alleys, porches, neighborhood shops, walking trails, lakes, etc. Could work out there. Of course I'd rather see new urbanism in the inner city, but perhaps that's just a dream.

[Spartan]

There are more huge proposals out in this area. There's a big lifestyle center that someone wants to build at Memorial and County Line Rd. My understand is that The Grove when finished (at May and 192nd I think) will be similar to this Village Verde as well.

As for the commute to downtown, I'd say at least an hour honestly. That's waaay out there.

[metro]

Hour?? I drive it all the time my rents live out that way, 30mins max, esp. if you take the turnpike

[okclee]

30 mins tops.