Eco Friendly Real Estate Blog

From the ASHEVILLE AREA NEIGHBORHOODS TO LOVE Series : ALBEMARLE PARK (Part 1)

Let me start by saying...  Once upon a time, approximately 11 miles from downtown Asheville; or 7 miles from the where bustling Patton Avenue intersects Highway 63; or 5 miles from dear "Green Asheville's" city limits; or 1/2 mile from the new Leicester Post Office, there was a beautiful organic farm-  

HOWEVER......for those of you who want a glimpse CLOSE IN before we head out there here the first of our series on  ASHEVILLE AREA NEIGHBORHOODS TO LOVE...CLOSE IN neighborhoods and their parks...ALBMARLE PARK

ALBEMARLE PARK of which Cottage Living says, "Like Cheers, the famous TV bar, Albemarle Park is a place where everyone knows your name. A mile from downtown Asheville, Albemarle is equal parts refuge, extended family, and happy hour. Each of the storybook homes has a name, such as Dahlia, Fox Hall, and Chipmunk..."

Homes: Thoughtful sustainable design and "green up-fitting"represents the character of Albemarle where tree-lined lanes accentuate a cottage scale, and street signs that make your on foot or fuel-efficient vehicle over approximately 42-acres a delight.

Sloping land leads to charming cottage-style homes. These may be rustic bungalows or shingle-clad Dutch Revivals, yet, while styles vary, design consistency-in the building materials, cottage scale, and street signs-graces Albemarle Park with a unified feeling.

Neighbors: Like most neighborhoods in Asheville, NC, the folks who live here (many of whom are "Cultural Creatives  -- architects, designers, teachers, authors, doctors, poets, lawyers, and gallery artists) are known for old-fashioned neighborliness. Here you can meet neighbors at the Autumn chili supper, Earth Day cleanup and brunch, and Easter parade.

Shops and Hangouts: Walk on over the short distance or ride your bike to the excellent Charlotte Street City Bakery and watch the on-going the historic restoration in the building in which it is housed. Or you can go a few blocks closer in to downtown for a Late at Starbucks.  The Asheville Board of REALTOS' HQ is right around the corner from City Bakery.  Collect a picnic at the Bakery and meet us for a tour of Green Homes nearby.

Neighborhood Parks Greenspace: (see photo) Right at Albemarle's center is a unique neighborhood park called The Circle.  Thomas Wolfe once performed there. During winter, families meet there to sled; in summer, neighbors hold a concert series, and oh my the colors of Autumn call to residents and visitors, alike....for an after work ramble with their dogs.

Pet Friendly: Yes!

Price Range: $500,000 and Up...NO  homes available at this time
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(*)/'(*)    ..........      ............to keep on rolling into the sustainable  world you can create today and tomorrow!. .........................    .............

Asheville NC NEIGHBORHOODS Favorite READ ABOUTS - 2009  .The Eco-Steward Firm, ALL Eco-Certified® Real Estate Consultants!  Copyright © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

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A Note to Buyers and Investors.

FOR OBJECTIVE REAL ESTATE COUNSEL from Eco Certified ©Real Estate Consultants contact our Eco-Friendly Team via email links here, or at 828-255-1082 . ... design your dream , give us your checklist , or start by simply seeing   Asheville, North Carolina on one of our GREEN ARROW "Just Looking" "green" LIMO Tours .

The ECO Certified ® Real Estate Consultants at The ECO Steward Real Estate Firm  specialize in working with eco-developers and LAND for sale in the Greater Asheville, North Carolina area. We are excited about value-added, ECO-friendly properties, and focus on positive futures. Our real estate practice inspires property investments for wealth of the generous kind

UPDATE: March, 2009

PLEASE KNOW  that all of us at the Eco-Steward Real Estate Firm are Eco Certified® Real Estate  Consultants, and specialize in land carefully and thoughtfully reviewed for eco-friendly development. Also, please know that we consider steep slopes and landslides a potential hazard ( I have personal experience with the result of  flat-lander inexperience in my own neighborhood and decry it)...and that we DO recommend that our clients contact Professionals and bring in a State licensed geotechnical engineer, if necessary ... to look at potential hazards ...  

HERE IN BUNCOMBE COUNTY just this month in fact, we have been having quite a brouhahain terms of Steep Slope development...and landslides ...Fingers have been pointed at Developers, Sellers and at REALTORS® . .. THIS IS ONE Real Estate Firm NOT to be disparaged . Again....in the Eco-Steward Real Estate Firm ALL members are Eco Certified® Real Estate  Consultants, and specialize in land carefully and thoughtfully reviewed for eco-friendly development

I wrote the following post back in 2007....

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Real Estate Investors and Developers with little experience in terms of steep slopes might want to seek out the assistance of an ECO certified REALTOR® and her team of Experts. Here in Western North Carolina, Landslides are a reality as you can see with this graphic shared at a class we recently took with Richard Wooten at the Warren Wilson College Environmental Leadership Centerjust outside of Asheville.

Some landslides only consist of soil, called an earthslide. Some are a mixture of soil, rock trees and mud, called a debris flow. Other landslides contain only rock, called a rockfall or rockslide. In any case, it behooves the REALTOR®, and developer to be conscious of that fact, and so advise clients.  Not long ago a developer from a State where mountains are not so common, bought a huge ridge top where he planned to erect 4000 sq ft homes on 1 AC lots and place them atop the lofty peaks. What the developer didn't know was that this" prime acreage" was unstable.

 The result for the developer was a combination of community concern, private embarrassment, and public back-peddling. Once the community found out that the "flatlander" was planning to build on steep slopes in an area prone to landslides, they were (rightly) distressed. Who wants to live downhill from where a landslide might take you for a fast ride in the middle of the night?  For that matter, who would want to invest in a home under those conditions?  Obviously, the community groups reasoned, that developer must not have a clue as to the dangerous conditions with which he was tampering. Shouldn't he at least have looked at the property to see if there were signs of danger such as breaks in the ground surface and/or curved trees?  (see photo below our photographer took at an acreage soon to go on the market.)

Back to the story....Community members, fueled by their feelings of extreme concern,
 formed vocal groups.
They came in noisy droves to the commissioners' planning board meetings,
making it necessary for the meetings to be moved to larger and larger rooms.

The media picked up on the story. A few months passed. The developer learned that the community groups had hired an attorney. Having done that, the attorney began his process of discovery. He verified that slope stability analyses from the planning through construction and inspection phases of developments can help mitigate the potential for landslide damage.He also found out that the analyses, best done by the cooperative efforts of qualified geotechnical engineers, geologists and soil scientists, were nowhere to be found.

This lack of due diligence on the part of interested parties created an opening for the community groups to question the safety of the project. They were able temporarily to halt development pending environmental assessment studies and review of steep slope ordinances.

Soon, in our part of the mountains, landslides and potential landslide areas will be mapped.Then investors, developers and REALTORS® will have readily accessible tools with which to identify and disclose that home sites and homes in those areas are vulnerable to landslide. For all of us, it is a good idea to know certain pertinent facts about the topography and geology of a tract of land that go beyond desirability of location.  

What do you think?

Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved  Asheville ECO Real Estate: Trends, Legacies & The Home Place Greenolina

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