Homes built near Sand Springs work "with" the land

"Home Sweet Home" is "Home Green Home" in a new subdivision north of Sand Springs.<br/><br/>The Preservation District is committed to what they call green building. Basically it means they try to work

Wednesday, March 29th 2006, 5:03 pm

By: News On 6

"Home Sweet Home" is "Home Green Home" in a new subdivision north of Sand Springs.

The Preservation District is committed to what they call green building. Basically it means they try to work with the land, instead of changing it.

News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg went to Sand Springs and tells us more about these "green" houses.

Lindsay Perkins has developed real estate in the Tulsa area for decades, but this is his first green project and maybe the first in the state.

"Green building has gotten very popular on the East Coast, West Coast, Austin, Albuquerque," she says.

Builder Wayne Rogers, who's creating this house for his parents says it's a far cry from the usual housebuilding technique.

"I like the way we can kind of monitor the use of the land and not overuse it," Rogers says. "Go in and clear cut, that's the cheapest way to do it. Just get all the trees out of your way and bring in enough fill dirt to level the ground completely."

But on this site, very little of the earth has been disturbed and all of these trees you see here will still be here, even after the house is built."

"We just kind of build to the lay of the land and make the house look like it grew out of the ground instead of just plopped down on a big pile of dirt," says Rogers.

Rogers says building it like this will cost about 10% more, but Perkins is offering a little green of his own: a rebate up to $2,500 on the cost of the land depending on how many different criteria the builder meets.

The builder can also get points for things like energy-efficient windows and air-conditioning units.

"We think by doing this, it'll help educate people and you're going to see a lot of other green development and a lot of other green building going on," says Perkins.

More than one-thousand homes are planned for the Preservation District.