Stevens Fine Homes' new home community, Deer Crossing, has been featured in Greater Wilmington Business Journal. Deer Crossing, Wilmington, NC's first eco-community, has shown significant growth in the past year with over 40 new homes sold to date.

Wilmington's first eco-community building momentum

By: Christina Haley
Published: September 30, 2011
Read full article in Greater Wilmington Business Journal  

Wilmington’s first and only eco-community to date is opening up its second phase of development.

Deer Crossing Eco Community, designed and developed by local environmentalist Angie Ki and her husband, Wilson Ki, started in 2010, and despite the weak housing market, it isn’t slowing down.

According to the community’s head real estate agent and new home specialist, Laura Heal, Deer Crossing is one of the fastest growing communities in New Hanover County.

“There’s really nothing like this in New Hanover, Pender and Brunswick counties,” Heal said.

The community is based on some of the principles touted by sustainability thinker Robert Gilman, whose work has influenced the eco-village movement and helped guide the Global Eco-Village Network.

Those principles include the creation of human-scale, full-featured communities in which human activities are integrated into the natural world while minimizing the impact on the environment, and which are sustainable.

By this definition, Deer Crossing meets three of Gilman’s criteria. While not a full-featured eco-settlement, Angie Ki had a vision to build a community that would have a small impact on the environment while also providing a friendly place for its residents to call home.

With starting prices for a 1,300 square-foot home at $169,900, landscaping package included, the community is “friendly” to homebuyers’ budgets.

So far, 38 homes have sold since the beginning of construction in September 2010.“We have already sold nine homes in phase two and 33 more are available,” said Heal. “If we keep moving at the same pace, phase three will go into construction soon and we will be completely sold out in two-and-a-half years.”

Complete with bird sanctuaries, butterfly and rain gardens, a dog park and 20 acres of forest threaded with walking trails, Ki has provided a way for Deer Crossing to be one with the nature that surrounds it.

Landscape architect Josh Mihaly ensured all plants on the 60-acre community are native to the Wilmington area.

Although the homes are not LEED-certified, each house is built by Stevens Fine Homes of Wilmington to meet Energy Star specifications, and include many features that conserve over one-fourth of the energy a normal home would use.

Source: Greater Wilmington Business Journal

• Posted: October 3, 2011

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