The making of a high performance green home on a budget - Site Considerations

The Coon project got off to a late start. The site was in an area within 500 feet of a previously known Florida Scrub Jay nest. The portion of the site that we selected for construction was nothing more than pasture grass. There was no brush, bushes, or trees in the area of construction activity. For this reason, quick approval for construction was granted by the state EPA.

The site is a 3.5 acre parcel. The client currently resides in a home on the lot. The house is old with bad bones and a layout that we decided we couldn’t work with. Rather than tearing the current home down, it will be converted to a storage building/workshop. This will minimize landfill impacts.

A portion of the parcel is within the flood zone A12. The new home location was carefully placed outside of this area to reduce the risk of flooding. As a secondary measure, the home’s elevation will still exceed the flood elevation standard.

A drainage swale is located across the road frontage. The swale will remain open in keeping with the neighborhood. A culvert was placed for driveway access. Once the culvert was set, silt fence was placed in the front of the site to control erosion during construction. We also used grass seed to control erosion on the swale banks. A boundary for access was set to reduce soil compaction outside of the immediate construction zone.