Building a Field of Green

Two teachers and a surgeon, in a new home-building venture, will erect seven Roanoke houses to demonstrate energy and environmental strategies that include routing rainwater through toilets and the washing machine.

They plan to insulate the houses with recycled newsprint and to mulch construction scrap for the garden.

Their company, Icon Development LLC, sees its mission as building so-called "green homes" that minimize energy waste and environmental harm. They didn't claim a piece of suburban woods or prairie but are doing it all in Roanoke at Brambleton Avenue and Overland Road near James Madison Middle School on land bought from the city. They expect a tax break to boot.

Other features at the Madison Field development include fresh- air intake valves so the well-sealed homes can breathe; energy- efficient appliances, windows and doors; strategically placed trees; bat houses for mosquito control; and an optional 1,000-gallon cistern that routes filtered rainwater to the shower. The houses will be so advanced, they will come with owners' manuals.

Although Icon Development is intended as a profit-making business, the owners see this venture as primarily a demonstration of projects to come, managing partner Veronica Van Deventer said. If the seven houses bring in about $400,000 apiece as expected, the project will be "pretty much a wash" for the owners after Icon pays expenses, she said.

But this is intended as only the beginning.

If all goes as planned, the houses will be at least 30 percent more energy efficient than a house built to current building codes in Roanoke, and they will cost about 8 percent more to construct, Van Deventer said. The long-range goal is to push energy efficiency higher with each project, eventually leading to homes on which no electricity bill would be due, she said. The houses might even generate electricity for which the owner would receive a check, she said.

Icon intends to build the houses to terms specified by EarthCraft House, an Atlanta-based "green" building program that promotes building homes that reduce utility bills and protect the environment. EarthCraft is a partnership between the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Southface Energy Institute, also an advocate of sustainable building practices.

The EarthCraft standards, which Icon says have never been demonstrated across an entire subdivision in Southwest Virginia, are supported by the Home Builders Association of Virginia and the Virginia Sustainable Building Network.

If the houses are built as promised, Roanoke plans to reduce the real estate tax for the property for five years, Van Deventer said. So with lower utility bills comes a lower tax bill, and, Van Deventer said, some lenders give more favorable terms on such properties.

Mark McClain, chairman of the Roanoke area group of the Sierra Club, reacted favorably to a reporter's brief description of the project.

"This is the wave of the future," he said. "This is where we need to be going, and the people that have the foresight to do this now, they are going to be the big winners."

McClain said the key test will be the houses' ability to use energy efficiently. The strategy to put captured rainwater to use struck McClain as "excellent." Using a patch of vacant land within the city, rather than claiming suburban open space, is also a plus, he said.

Van Deventer led a brief tour of the site, pointing out an excavation for the basement of the first house.

When the project is done in late 2008, she envisions an attractive cluster of houses and grounds.

A walnut tree felled for an extension of Martin Lane will be split between a person who makes wood bowls and a carpenter in return for several bowls, mantles or shelves to go in the houses, she said.

"This is an opportunity to show Roanoke citizens what an energy- efficient subdivision is," Van Deventer said. "This is kind of like our advertising. People don't know us."

Van Deventer taught elementary and high school for 20 years, most recently computers and economics at Roanoke Catholic.

She is leaving education to become a developer, while her husband, Larry, will continue as a theater teacher at William Fleming High School.

Al Henry, a Roanoke County breast surgeon, rounds out the team. The Van Deventers have some construction experience, having built two houses. Henry knows people at Southface, including founder Dennis Creech.

The Van Deventers' journey to become developers took a major turn when they learned a farm near their Goodview home would be auctioned in pieces after the owner's death. They feared it might become a residential project without ample open space for resident use. Henry, a friend of the couple, shared their concern.

Newly formed Icon ended up with a 32-acre chunk of the farm and has put in place covenants to preserve some open space as lots are developed.

They have since shifted the mission of Icon from the protection of large parcels of rural land from being "butchered" by traditional residential development, to use Veronica Van Deventer's term, to primarily green residential projects that fulfill urban needs.

On the Net:icondevelopment.net

(c) 2007 Roanoke Times & World News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.