FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — New homes in Fayetteville are aiming to foster sustainability and community.
The 11th Street Cottages is the first ENERGY STAR certified pocket neighborhood in Northwest Arkansas that just recently opened in Fayetteville.
ENERGY STAR is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
To earn the coveted certification, a new residence must "undergo a rigorous process of third-party inspections and testing to verify that all applicable program requirements are met," the program's website said.
Energy efficiency is a big part of the requirements, and the new Fayetteville cottages are supposed to excel in that area.
"What's really made this work, that high performance energy efficiency, is that we've had great partnership with SWEPCO. We've had great partnerships with the EPA and the DOE," said Lawerence Finn with Dakota Development LLC. "It's been outstanding to be able to produce a house that performs as well as these do, that live as well as these do, and they help to subsidize it, and we pass those subsidies right along to the buyer."
Finn said it's a rigorous process to get certified and that it all starts with design, then bringing the right people in to check on met requirements.
"Where the windows are actually placed, the size of the windows, the orientation of the solar panels, but more importantly, the insulation of the house, so the shade and shelter the systems that are built into the house" Finn explained.
All nine homes in the development were designed with "high-performance systems," which means they are significantly more energy efficient than typical new homes built in Fayetteville. Two of the houses are net zero homes, meaning they will generate as much energy as they consume. This is because of the 12 solar panels on each roof.
"Basically, you pay no utility bills. So everything in the house is actually powered by the sun," Finn said. "It balances out between the demand that has been modeled for the house, and at the end of the day, your utility bills should be nothing."
The other seven homes are expected to help owners save $55 to $100 on their utility bills each month.
The homes are set in a pocket neighborhood, which shares a central courtyard and common garden full of plants native to Arkansas.
"There's fruit trees, pawpaw trees, there's blueberry bushes, there's sage and spices and things that are all in the garden. That is a fairly rigorous maintenance program, but the houses come with a caretaker, so we're working with Native Restoration Management, which is a specialty in Northwest Arkansas in maintaining natural gardens," Finn said.
"It really is an assemblage of houses that have responsible separation, that provide for comfort, that provide for security, that provide for privacy, that is surrounded by shared green space as well as owned courtyard space," Finn added.
The houses are 1,100 to 1,200 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
"Six of the houses have electric vehicle chargers that are already built into it," Finn said. "We're very efficient of the use of the space. So small spaces with 10-foot ceilings feel large. [It's a] community of nine homes in a normal lot that could fit one house."
They cottages are in located South Fayetteville, which Finn said helps with walkability and helps mitigate urban sprawl while encouraging growth.
"I love South Fayetteville. I love the proximity to the square and we are a couple of blocks from the Razorback Greenway. The city is about to invest in Walker Park, which is only two blocks to the west," Finn said. "They're different floor plans, they're different orientation, they're different finishes."
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