Housing Development Preserves Rural Character

  • To preserve farmland and natural areas the Tryon Farm developers cluster houses into small settlements and leave the barns and farmhouse intact.

Farmland and natural areas across the region are being cleared andleveled to make way for urban sprawl and rapid growth. But a newdevelopment in Northern Indiana is trying to find a way to satisfy thedemand for more homes… while helping to preserve at least some of therural environment… the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Grahamreports:

Transcript

Farmland and natural areas across the region are being cleared and leveled to make way
for urban sprawl and rapid growth. But a new development in Northern Indiana is trying
to find a way to satisfy the demand for more homes, while helping to preserve at least
some of the rural environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports.


(sound of chickens and goats)

Tryon Farm is an old dairy farm. The 1890’s farmhouse is
surrounded by
mature shade trees. There are chickens in the backyard and
goats in the
barnyard.

(sound of chicken and goats out, crickets and birds up)

But behind the big white dairy barn, a gravel road that
leads to a courtyard. This is the center of life at the new housing
development that is part of Tryon Farm. The courtyard is bordered by multi-car
garages.
Clustered around those are 16 different contemporary
interpretations of the Midwest farmhouse. This cluster is the first of what could be
as many as
eight settlements– groupings of homes tucked on different
sites of the working farm.


Ed Noonan is the architect and developer of Tryon Farm. It’s
been getting the attention and praise of architects and environmentalists
for what some consider an important new approach in development.

“What we wanted to do was find a way to –for want of a better
word– be house farmers. In other words preserve the land and use it so that
when you were on a house here you still had a farm. When you were on a house
here you still had conservation. And traditionally, those things have been
in opposition to each other. So, that allows you to think much differently
about it.”

Noonan and his partners in the architecture firm Chicago
associates have been working to create a rural living experience by keeping
much of the farm intact. They plan to keep three-quarters of the farm –a full
120 acres– as a natural area or part of the working farm.

“It seemed like it was such a good place it shouldn’t be wasted.
And we knew what to do with it, so, why not?”


And that open land has been a major selling point for the
development. Everyone who buys a house here knows the farmhouse, barn,
and the long views of pasture and woodlands will always be around. That’s
because the undeveloped land is being placed in the hands of a non-profit
organization what will make sure it remains in its current state. So, future
owners won’t be tempted to replace farmland with more houses. Meanwhile
the family that owned the Tryon Farm still farms it.

(sound of hammering)

All 16 homes in the first settlement sold rather quickly. About
two-thirds of them to people who live in Chicago during the week and
come here to their
farmhouse on the weekend. The rest of the homes are owned by
people who live here full-time including Meg Haller, who says she’s pleased
to call this
home.

“It’s not your basic subdivision. I’ve met more people the first day
that I was here and truly think of them as friends than I had in five years
living in your basic subdivision. And the fact that our common areas are a
farmhouse and chickens and goats is certainly unique. I don’t think you’ll
find that anywhere else.”

Not everyone thinks the farm is ideal. Jeff Speck is the co-
author of the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of
the American Dream
. Speck commends Noonan for the work he’s doing at
Tryon, but he says it still does little to stop sprawl. After all, it’s still a
development miles from stores and does little to reduce the reliance on
cars typical of the suburbs.

“It sounds like a good deal for the residents, because they’re getting
great views, a lot of spaces preserved, and they’ll have a better society,
you know, better communal society than they would have if it was one house
per lot. But, I wonder how the people surrounding it feel. They probably do
consider it sprawl.”

(Sound of car put in gear and driving)

Ed Noonan says using the Tryon Farm for housing is better
than the previous plans for this area. It was zoned for industrial use. As he
drives on dirt paths on the property. He notes he’s putting the settlements
on the land that’s not good for farming, making sure each settlement is
out of the sight of the others. And he’s restoring some of the cropland to
prairie grasses and flowers.

“I want to do no harm to this. And yet I want humans here. And so,
how I place the human beings is my job so I do the least amount of harm to
landscape and fit the people into the land rather than fitting the land to
the people which is what the normal subdivision generally does. It doesn’t
take into consideration the characteristics of the place except in the most
shallow possible way.”

(car noise out / crickets and birds up)

There are very few such developments across the nation. Most
developers are not willing to take the economic risk of an untried and novel
approach to a housing development.


Experts say the housing trend is still toward bigger houses on
large private lots. It’s considered a sign of the homeowner’s success. At
least some of the residents at Tryon, however, say their statement about
success is in living a more relaxed lifestyle on the farm.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.