Developers Using More Green Space and Nature Trails, Planner Says

CHARLOTTE-Developers are beginning to use more green space, nature trails, parks and other sports-free facilities in planning major projects, according to Brad Davis, a partner in locally-based Land Design Inc.

One of his company’s recent projects, Village of Baxter in Fort Mill, SC, is a 950-acre development offering single-family homes and townhomes, commercial sites and more than 400 acres of open space. Another example of Land Design’s wide-open land use concept is Alta Village on the former International Business Machines Corp. campus in the University City area.

Locally, many of the front doors in the Dilworth neighborhood open onto park space. Some metro Charlotte residential zoning requirements mandate that at least 10% of the land in a planned project be developed as green space.

Crescent Communities, a division of Duke Energy Corp.’s Crescent Resources Inc. and one of the largest developers in the region, has had success with its three golf course communities but now hopes to attract tenants to its new non-golf communities with amenities that include walking trails and other green-space facilities.