Updated October 12, 2004

COMING SOON! is now!!

The first homes in Shaker Heights to be built with greenbuilding guidelines are under construction. The homes on the corner of Scottsdale and Lindholm are being developed by Rysar Properties and being built by Sutton Builders. We'll be sharing the progress of these homes on this page over the next several months.

The first issue to be addressed was protection of the site. Since there were no trees on the site itself, this made that decision easy. But there are small trees planted by the city on the tree lawn. It looks like the sewer lines to the street can be located to avoid these trees, but since they are so small at least one could need to be removed. All trees on the tree lawn will have fencing around them to protect them. This is just one of the considerations greenbuilding brings to the building process. You may not be able to save every tree, but you thoughtfully consider the alternatives before doing so.

The second issue for site protection is making use of the existing soils for backfilling and finish grading. This means first evaluating the kind of soils you have on the site. This site had lots of gravel and other debris on its surface so retaining much of the topsoil may be difficult.

Shaker has heavy clay soils beneath the surface, so much of the excavation soil will be removed from the site because it is not a good soil to be using for backfill, since it can expand and cause damage to the foundation. So preserving soils for this project may prove difficult. Hopefully some of the topsoil can be retained. Avoiding moving soils reduces the energy costs of building and some constructon costs because soils do not have to be handled twice or new soils purchased.