ROOMS WITH A VIEW: Planting houses among the trees is the goal of development rules in Hamburg Township

October 3, 2004

BY MARTY HAIR
FREE PRESS GARDEN WRITER

Michelle O'Dwyer's new 3-bedroom, 2-bath house is in a Hamburg Township development with tall pine trees. From the front, she will be able to see a nature preserve with woodland trails.

"What really got me . . . was the pines," says O'Dwyer. "It's like you're living up north."

For the past decade, Hamburg Township has had an ordinance offering developers an incentive to preserve natural areas when they create new subdivisions: If they preserve at least 40 percent of the land and cluster houses around the open spaces, they can build more homes on smaller lots than would be allowed otherwise. In the process, the municipality saves infrastructure costs.

The ordinance has been so popular that 30 -- or 95 percent -- of the developments since the early 1990s have followed the open space unit model, according to township zoning administrator Patrick Hagman.

According to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan, having a view of nature with trees is more important to people than having a big house or a big lot. The survey polled 231 residents of Hamburg Township, a fast-growing area in Livingston County that has rolling land, more than 30 lakes and a stretch of the Huron River. Three U-M researchers polled people in open space communities and residents of more traditional developments about their priorities. They asked them to rate the relative importance of having a nature view from the house, having a natural area within walking distance, or a big house, big lot, a maintained yard or sidewalks.

Both groups put a nature view from the house at the top of the list, according to the study. The authors are Stephen Kaplan, U-M professor of psychology, computer science and engineering; Rachel Kaplan, U-M professor of environment and behavior, and Maureen Austin, assistant professor of environmental studies at Alaska Pacific University.

Stephen Kaplan says it's true that people move to new developments seeking a more natural setting but wind up in big houses on big, mowed lots.

"That's their primary option because that's what's being built. It doesn't mean it is their choice. The irony is, they destroy what they came for," Kaplan says. He hopes the study's findings help to convince developers and municipalities to adopt preservation ordinances like Hamburg Township's.

"We felt one important step was to do research that showed scientifically that these were meeting people's needs. So far, it's been a proposal and assertion but not with any data behind it," he says about open space communities.

But even people who live in open space communities seem confused about what that means. Stephen Kaplan says a more specific term, like conservation development, might help avoid confusion.

" 'Open space' to the public could be forest or farm or grassland, whatever. That's not a fine enough tool any longer," he says.

Michelle O'Dwyer is selling her current house on 5 acres adjoining a woods for a new house at the Fairways at Whispering Pines. The Fairways developer is Sobelco Inc. of Southfield; Crosswinds Community is the builder. The development has 187 detached site condos that start at about $180,000. Residents pay monthly association fees of $150 for maintenance services like landscaping, snow and rubbish removal and gutter cleaning.

As she downsizes, O'Dwyer will give up a yard she shares with sandhill cranes, fox and deer. But her new view will be a nature preserve and, in back, the 18th hole of the Whispering Pines Golf Course.

"The houses are fairly close together but it's so pretty it doesn't even matter," she says.

Livingston County's master plan encourages communities to offer builders density incentives like the one in Hamburg Township, where the population of 23,000 is forecast to reach 36,300 by 2030, according to Florence Davis, principal planner.

"That's the kind of development we advocate because it's been established they preserve natural features and prevent sprawl," she says. Still, while the open space developments are popular with buyers, Davis says builders have been slower to see the advantages. One reason, she suggests, is that builders believe it will require more work for them to satisfy the requirements than simply slicing a property into equal lots.

In a study the Michigan Association of Realtors commissioned three years ago concerning the factors people consider when moving, the top reasons were to live where there is a lower crime rate, to be close to family and friends and to get more open green space. Nearly half said their main reason was to have a larger house and a larger yard.

Would a view of trees and woods make them happier? Perhaps. The Kaplans were among the first scientists to study the natural environment's restorative impact on human psychology. In one study, they found workers report being happier, healthier and more satisfied with their jobs when they can look out the office window and see trees and grass.

In Hamburg Township, real estate agent Rick Beaudin of the Michigan Group says prospective buyers seem to appreciate the municipality's efforts to manage growth.

"They're using land so it preserves nature as much as possible. That's what's kept up our values," Beaudin says. The average new home price in the township is $250,000.

The only downside, Beaudin adds, is that buyers seeking starter houses priced at $125,000 to $150,000 will have to look elsewhere.

Contact MARTY HAIR at 313-222-2005 or hair@freepress.com.