Cane Ridge is home to the first ‘green’ subdivision in the state

A 20-acre piece of land in Cane Ridge that served as a battleground between developers and neighboring residents is being converted into the state of Tennessee’s first green-certified subdivision.

Franklin developer Randy Chastain, who owns Parkside Homes, will break ground on Cambridge Park next week. Cambridge Park will be a 77-home development in which each house will meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

“Future homeowners are going to have a certified piece of paper to have and to show to future buyers that says, ‘Look, this is LEED-certified. It was built with the highest certification standards,’” Chastain said.

LEED certification takes into account energy conservation, materials used during the building process and the environmental effect the homes will have on the property. The Cambridge Park homes will be in the range of $230,000 to $290,000, Chastain said.

Joe Cooper works on behalf of EcoSouth and is in charge of LEED certification for much of the Southeast, including Nashville. Cooper said there are other LEED-certified homes and private businesses in Nashville, but Cambridge Park is the first ‘green’ subdivision in the state.

Chastain said the advantage to green homes goes beyond using the LEED certification to improve resale value.

“In this time of… rising fuel costs and energy bills, people want new ways to save money,” Chastain said. “We feel like this is the future.”

The Cambridge Park development is a happy ending to a four-year-long affair that District 31 Councilman Parker Toler called “a terrible mess.”

Toler said the residents along Barnes Road wanted a development that made sense for their neighborhood. The property had passed through the hands of four potential developers who dreamed up uses from commercial property to bed and breakfasts.

“On this one piece of property, I must have had about 18 meetings with the neighbors,” Toler said. “This was a big issue to everyone for a number of years.”

It took five more meetings among Toler, Chastain and neighbors before everyone was on board to move forward with Cambridge Park.

“I agree with Councilman Toler this was a collective effort of working together between the developer, the neighbors and their [Metro Council member],” Chastain said. “Too often in our business, developers don’t take the time to talk to the neighborhoods.”

Besides constructing the first green subdivision in the state, Chastain agreed to widen 1,300 feet of Barnes Road at his own expense.

“That was an agreement we worked out with Councilman Toler in order to make this work,” Chastain said. “Seeing as though we were the developer and the builder, we weren’t presenting the neighbors with a hypothetical. We could show them plans of what we were going to do and specifically explain to them what we would do to meet their concerns about density and other issues.”

Last month, Metro Council authorized the formation of the Green Permit Task Force. The purpose of the task force is to find a process, either LEED or another green-certification provider, which will allow future developments to have paperwork filed with Metro Codes verifying their building as green.

Chastain said adopting green standards will likely become mandatory for developers in the future, so doing so in advance just makes sense.

“We’re talking about homes that take a holistic approach in everything from how they’re framed, to the windows to the appliances they use, so they conserve energy and are completely sustainable,” Chastain said.