CONSERVATION SUBDIVISIONS
GOOD FOR THE LAND, GOOD FOR THE POCKETBOOK
Tryon Farm is the brainchild of another Chicago couple, Eve Noonan and her husband Ed of Chicago Associates Planners & Architects. They had long-enjoyed a second home on the beach in Michigan City.
When they decided to purchase the nearby Tryon Family farmstead, a picturesque piece of Indiana dairy farmland held by the same family from back to the Civil War, the Noonans focused on preserving more than 70 percent of the land.
They knew the site, with its restored prairie and 150-year-old beech trees, would be attractive as a second home to Chicagoland city dwellers. But with the South Shore passenger rail -- one of the nation’s oldest interurban lines -- just five minutes away, they knew their rural residential development would still feature transit connectivity to the big city.
“If we hadn’t developed this way, the property would have been all commercial – totally flattened. With a Conservation Subdivision, we were able to preserve a 40-foot dune. Our dream was to build something like this.”
Homes in Tryon, clustered in little pockets of land, range in price from the high $100,000s to the mid $400,000s. The 120-acre preserve is held by a non-profit foundation that uses the old barn and residential farm animals to present educational workshops. The non-profit guarantees the 120 acres will never be developed and it saves homeowners from paying taxes on what would have been valued as a 120-acre common area.
TOMORROW: CLUSTERED SETTLEMENTS
Wright frequently writes about smart growth and sustainable communities. He and his wife live in a restored historic home in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com
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