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To Achieve Optimum Water Use Efficiency, New Alamo Creek Community Pushes Landscape Architecture Envelope

DANVILLE, CA – To meet stringent regulations on water usage by its residents, the developer of the new 600-acre Alamo Creek community in Danville, CA, was faced with the unprecedented challenge of how to build and market a new community while dramatically reducing the amount of water that would normally be consumed for lush lawns, parks, and green belts.

Located in an unincorporated area of Contra Costa County, CA, Alamo Creek is planned for 923 residences but is outside the service area of the local water supplier, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).  With no other options for its water supply, developer Shapell Homes approached the water utility with the request to provide service to its planned community.

After extensive negotiations, EBMUD and Shapell inked a groundbreaking demand mitigation agreement that resulted in a pioneering water conservation program at Alamo Creek, a program that could serve as a prototype for future developments in water-hungry areas of California.

 “Alamo Creek is outside the district’s service boundaries and so we didn’t have a dedicated water provider,” explains Jim Gold, Shapell vice president.  “To get water for our new community, we had to promise to meet these tough guidelines. There are a lot of water districts that require water-efficiency, but not to this degree.  If you’re going to get water from this district, you’re going to have to adhere to their guidelines.”  

The program’s primary goal requires zero-net impact on EBMUD’s demand for water and was calculated on a savings basis of two gallons saved for each gallon used by each and every Alamo Creek homeowner.   “We are really emphasizing a collaborative effort with home owners to educate them on their water usage,” explains Mike Hazinkski, EBMUD water conservation supervisor.

The aggressive  water savings will be accomplished through multiple measures, including:

• An average water usage budget established per lot (for each home) of 320 gallons of water per day, with most of the water reduction coming from lower water usage for landscaping. By comparison, most customers in EBMUD’s service area use in excess of 500 gallons of water per day, per residence.
• Landscaping designed for arid and semi-arid conditions.
• Extensive training programs for landscape contractors and home owners.
• Water-efficient devices for landscaping.
• Water-efficient appliances in the homes.
• Surcharge premiums enforced by the Alamo Creek Homeowners Association to home owners who use more water than budgeted for their individual home.

To reach the 2:1 goal, Shapell Homes and the water utility established efficiency programs incorporating several off-set measures within EBMUD’s service area, including the installation of water saving devices in homes of existing EBMUD residential customers, as well as  implementing conservation training programs and other measures to conserve water throughout EBMUD’s service area.

Creating a plan is one thing; implementing it is something else.  To take on this extreme landscape architecture challenge, Shapell retained NUVIS to design and implement a program that would satisfy EBMUD’s water conservation objectives. The solution, according to Leslee A.Temple, FASLA, vice president of NUVIS, was to literally go where no landscape architecture firm had ever gone before – at least in California.

“Our company has never been asked to address the issue of water efficiency at the level required by the Municipal Utility District for Alamo Creek,” Temple says.  “But it was a great experience for Shapell, Brookwater, and for our firm because this puts us ahead of the curve.  We’ll all have to be more and more water efficient and we are going to have to abide by increasingly restrictive guidelines on water usage.”

While EBMUD presented Shapell and NUVIS with a daunting assignment, Temple believes that Alamo Creek is pointing the way for future generations of community development throughout the state of California as many local governments struggle with dwindling water supplies and an increasing commitment to sustainability.  She says the homebuilding industry, as well as other industries such as ornamental horticulture, need to catch up with some of these new water conservation standards.

Gold agrees.  He says he expects other water districts in California to start requiring these types of tougher mandates in the future as well. “It’s coming and we want to be ahead of the game,” he states. “The East Bay District is on the leading edge.” With Alamo Creek as its guidepost, East Bay Municipal Utility District is currently refining its water utility regulations to require higher levels of sustainability for customers within its existing service area.

NUVIS’ approach was to think outside the proverbial water-usage box by identifying places where water was not really necessary although restricting its use might go against standard thinking and operating procedure for residential communities.  The starting point was the front yard of each of the community’s 13 model homes by doing away with water-hungry natural turf and plantings in favor of more drought tolerant and native plant material.

Explains Temple, “The plantings of each model home had to be both different and attractive by featuring a variety of layered plant materials to achieve necessary tolerance and desired esthetics.  The result was one of the most extensive lists of plant materials we have ever used in any community, but we achieved the goal.”  Temple points out that many people have the mistaken impression that water-efficient landscaping must be drab and gray, “but we have shown at Alamo Creek that it can be very attractive while at the same time conserving our valuable water resource. Each home looks unique and has great curb appeal.” 

 “This is like nothing we’ve ever done before, especially the no grass part,” adds Gold. “We modeled the whole project with no turf in the front yards and the result is much better than we ever could have imagined.”  

Other conversation measures that are part of Alamo Creek’s community fabric demonstrate how new residential projects can, if properly planned and incentivized, greatly reduce water consumption.  To wit: the water usage program specifies indoor/outdoor water conservation measures beyond normal requirements by utilizing recycled water for landscape irrigation, state-of-the-technology water-control devices and management systems, drought tolerant landscaping, and water-efficient appliances inside each home. Ric Hendricks, NUVIS principal and manager of its San Ramon office, which supervised the Alamo Creek project, also notes that synthetic turf is used on the soccer fields within the community.

“This is probably the most ambitious water conservation program in the nation,” Hendricks states. “We really pushed the envelope in plant design.” Also, he says water management systems are at a much higher level than other types of more mainstream landscape architecture programs. For example, every home has a water budget that residents must honor; they can’t exceed the budget by more than 20 percent or the HOA is assessed a penalty. 

To achieve optimum water use efficiency, each home will have an ET Controller that receives daily on-site weather updates from a weather satellite.  The data are used to adjust run times and provide better water consumption management.  In addition, an on-site weather station is being installed in the community to provide immediate weather data for all common area irrigation systems (HOA areas, parks, open space).

Along with the synthetic turf used at the soccer fields, Hendricks says drip and subsurface irrigation has been installed in appropriate areas to offset water consumption. Also, the multi-family townhomes are designed with about 95 percent of the landscaped area being subsurface irrigation with only the turf play areas using traditional irrigation. All open spaces have been populated with native plant species and will be on a temporary irrigation system that will be closed down once the plant material has been established.

Another goal, Temple says, was to create a landscape architecture program that would make it easier for residents to better  understand and appreciate the water efficient materials being used. “The model homes even contain educational materials that help residents understand the nature of this somewhat progressive landscape architecture program,” she explains.  “Informing residents about the importance of these conservation rules and how to abide by them, is critical to the success of the program.”

Educating Alamo Creek’s project staff, residents and others about the landscape architecture program requires critical thinking and special care, says Nancy Rice, Shapell vice president of marketing.  “We spent a great deal of time and energy figuring out how to best educate people about this since it’s so revolutionary,” Rice notes.

The education program includes training, signs, displays, brochures; one of the Alamo Creek model homes has a variety of demonstrations, displays and other devices to “help people understand what the program is all about in a real and environmentally conscious framework,” she says.   The model homes incorporate sustainable products and practices that highlight major areas of the water conservation program.

To further promote the education process, EBMUD agreed to collaborate with Shapell to create the Alamo Creek Water Smart Education Center to provide important information to home buyers on landscaping and water conservation measures at community, neighborhood and home levels. The water utility has a track record of working with builders on establishing information centers and training programs, including Shapell at its Wendt Ranch development just a mile west of Alamo Creek. 

But this is the first time that an actual facility was been dedicated for an education/information center.  Shapell provided space for the center in a two-car garage in one of its model homes and did the shell and interior build out for the center, which includes upgrades such as an HVAC system to ensure year-round comfort and to accommodate the various displays in the education center. EBMUD shared in the expense of building the center by producing the displays and special lighting used in the center.  Shapell maintains the center with janitorial and cleaning services while EBMUD provides any maintenance required for the information modules.

The Alamo Creek community consists of approximately 300 acres of developed land, while another 275 acres was set aside as permanent open space and about 25 acres were devoted to parks and recreational facilities.  Environmental mitigation features include wetland habitat, enhancement of creek corridors and creation of a fully-funded open space management plan for the endangered Red Legged Frog, Kit Fox and Tiger Salamander. The open space is slated for preservation and management in perpetuity.

When completed, the community will encompass 676 single-family residences, 127 below-market rate townhomes, and 120 affordable senior apartments. A fire station and elementary school will be built as part of the new community, and it will also include a competitive-level aquatic center, a community center for social, recreational and cultural activities, a seniors’ center, parks and a 10-acre soccer complex.  Alamo Creek architecture was designed by noted Architect Robert Hidey of Newport Beach, Calif. and the Dahlin Group, based in San Ramon. 

NUVIS, which also has offices in Costa Mesa, CA, and Las Vegas, NV,  provides a wide range of landscape architecture and planning services for public sector projects such as parks, urban revitalization, and transportation corridors, as well as urban infill developments, master-planned and golf communities, resorts, institutional and commercial projects, and retail and entertainment complexes for private sector clients.  NUVIS’ web site is www.nuvis.net.

Shapell Homes recently celebrated its 51st year of building homes for families throughout California. Shapell is known for its superb craftsmanship and quality construction, innovative architecture, customer satisfaction and community orientation. Shapell proudly supports a great number of community events and is a frequent sponsor and contributor to many non-profit agencies and organizations.  To learn more about Shapell Homes, please see www.shapell.com.

Based in Oakland, Calif., EBMUD serves the majority of Alameda County and Contra Costa County in the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay. EBMUD is the second largest water utility in the state, serving approximately 1.34 people through its 385,000 accounts. It is also a unique utility in California in that it manages its own water supply and watershed, namely, snow melt from the Sierra Nevada (most water utilities buy water from various suppliers). In addition, it is one of the few utilities in the country to provide waste water services.  Its web site is www.ebmud.com.