Village Verde addition is ‘green’ from the ground up
Green is in the eye of the beholder at Village Verde, a deliberately eco-friendly neighborhood at the grassy northwest fringe of Oklahoma City. For some, it means “country.” Mike Komarek said he awoke the other morning to the sound of frogs celebrating after a rain. That didn’t happen at the other homes he and his wife, Carla, owned closer in to Oklahoma City and Edmond.
David and Ronda Brainard found themselves living on a frontier when they bought the first house in their section last fall. They got to be the first to welcome new people to the addition west of Mustang Road and north of Northwest Expressway, nearly to Piedmont.
“In one direction, you can go to Eischen’s (for) chicken, and in the other direction you can go to Oklahoma City,” she said — 17 miles northwest is the historic Okarche saloon serving its famous fried chicken, and 17 miles southeast is downtown Oklahoma City.
For Mike Combs of Capital Homes, it’s meant a commitment to going green-er.
Capital Homes has built to the federal Energy Star conservation standards before, but its 17 lots in Village Verge will go further, with houses built to a HERS Index score of 70 or less.
That’s a requirement in Village Verde. HERS stands for Home Energy Rating System; a score of 100 is the “standard new home,” and the lower the score, the more energy-efficient.
For Ideal Homes of Norman, a builder in Village Verde since construction started in 2012, green means energy-efficiency and cost-efficiency for homebuyers, of course — and monetary success for Ideal Homes.
“In 2015, Ideal Homes exceeded projections by 10 percent in Village Verde, partially fueled by the opening of a new section and the completion of new amenities including a new playground and basketball court,” said Steve Shoemaker, vice president of sales and marketing. “That momentum carried into the first quarter of 2016.”
And that’s the particular hue that developers Kelly Parker and O.A. Garr are aiming for with Village Verde: a double shade of green, one part energy savings, one part financial reward for themselves and builders willing to build for the “green” market.
Green from the start
“We set out to build a green community from the beginning ... everything from the