Condo site is first in nation to get Audubon certification
Monday, December 03, 2007 - BY AARON DOME

Special to Hometown Gazette RICHLAND -- A horde of houses that all look the same. What was once a pastoral field or a piece of forest is gone and replaced with blacktop and vinyl siding as far as the eye can see.

These are the scenarios most people think of when the words "condo development" come to mind. But Cranes Pond in Richland aims for something different. It's the first residential community in the nation to be certified silver by Audubon International.

"This certification outlines a plan that we need to abide by in order to actually enhance the habitat while we build, instead of what happens in most cases when you take away from the habitat," said Jack Kosin, director of sales and marketing for Cranes Pond. "For example, we've had about six trees right by the house we're using as our sales office that have been cut down by a beaver. In most cases people would get a permit and kill that thing as quick as they could, but we're in a pickle because that goes against our ideals to try and keep things as natural as possible."

Cranes Pond is adjacent to Gull Lake View Golf Course. The area is surrounded by nature trails, and future plans call for adding an equestrian center.

Cranes Pond is being developed in three phases, each with 30 to 50 homesites. Stonehedge Development said earlier this year it plans to market houses mostly situated on quarter-acre lots for $400,000 to $800,000.

Of the site's 250 acres, 70 percent will be left as open space. The site incorporates a natural drainage system to collect and distribute runoff evenly. A comprehensive wildlife and plant inventory of the site was taken.

"Any development certified by Audubon has a plant palette included in their site-specific plan that lists the native species to be incorporated onto the site," said Nancy Richardson, Audubon Signature Programs director. "With the review of the initial site plan, we work to incorporate and conserve passages of green cover so that wildlife can move around the property without encountering humans."

Here's another consideration: Many residential communities would apply chemicals to kill lily pads in a pond. While some might like the "clean" look of a pond free of vegetation, lily pads provide a home for fish and other wildlife.

"On the lots that were built out, we make sure that there is a wide buffer that protects the water quality by providing a buffer through which any runoff would be filtered before entering the lake," Richardson said.

Any development has an impact on the environment. Species may be displaced and trees knocked down. But Audubon makes sure that the development is environmentally friendly.

"It's not us saying it, it's not someone who works for us saying it. Audubon is a third party whose interests are promoting environmentally sensitive developments," said Jon Scott, developer of Cranes Pond. "If you buy something in this development, you have a resource to say that this is in fact an environmentally sensitive house that you are buying, it has these qualities that are meaningful from an environmental standpoint. They are guaranteeing that we are doing what we say we are doing."

In the shaky real estate market, Kosin said a risk was taken in not building as many Michigan condos as could be built at Cranes Pond, but it's expected the risk will pay off.

"A lot of these condos are custom-built and prepaid," Kosin said. "We're defying all odds here in this market. We've got three customs being built going into the winter, which many builders can't brag about.

"I've got a woman who is moving here from Cincinnati who looked at all kinds of condos, and she just fell in love with the place," he said. "She was telling me about all the wildlife she spotted, and she brought her husband up and said: `Just pick one. I don't care which one. I want to live here."

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