Conservation-Based Affordable Housing Profiles

Completed Housing Projects

East Lake Commons
Decatur, GA
This infill development combines a wildlife corridor, protected spring, and on-site organic farm with 67 homes, five percent of which are affordable, and access to nearby transit. Completed in 2000, East Lake Commons protects 11 of its 21 acres, on the site just four miles from downtown Atlanta. It was formerly a brownfield site strewn with tires. Read more at:

Troy Gardens
Madison, WI

“When I think of projects in Madison that I am most proud of and I think deserve recognition for innovation on a national scale, I think first of Troy Gardens.”

--Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, City of Madison.

Troy Gardens combines 26 acres of restored prairie, community gardens, and an organic garden with 30 homes, two-thirds of which are affordable. Twenty of the 30 homes were sold as land trust homes to first-time homebuyers at or below 80% of the median income level for Dane County. These were priced under market value with a restriction on how much profit can be made when they are resold, so that will be permanently affordable to future buyers. The remaining ten units were sold on the open market as conventional homes. The 26-acre conservancy site is permanently protected under the terms of a conservation easement held by the Urban Open Space Foundation, which prohibits any uses which do not include conservancy and agricultural uses. Read more at:

Oak Cliff Nature Preserve/Primrose Oaks Senior Housing
Dallas, Texas
As the Boy Scouts began considering selling 166 acres of property in south Dallas, local activists pieced together an innovative solution. Many community members had played in the creek bottoms of the land when they were children. Concerned about the possible sale of this community treasure and its ravines, gullies, and escarpments, developers and conservationists created a new planned unit development district that combined 250 units of affordable rental development for seniors with a 118-acre nature preserve. The plan also provided for a new elementary school on 10 acres and a new library that is LEED-Silver certified. The project was possible through hard work (planned in just 5 months) and an essential grant of $1.25 million from U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s section 108 funds for neighborhood rehabilitation to fund land acquisition and other site-related work.
For further information contact David Marquis at 214-316-3916 or david.marquis@sbcglobal.net or visit http://www.napa-texas.org/.

Orchard Gardens
Missoula, Montana
This small development provides 35 units of between one and three-bedroom apartments built using green practices on the urban fringe of Missoula’s west side, an area still deeply rooted in an agricultural tradition. Two acres of the 4.6 acre site is reserved for community gardens. The project also includes a community barn, orchards, and a bike trail that connects to the city’s trail system. For more information contact Betsy Hands, Executive Director, HomeWORD at 406-543-3550 or betsy@homeword.org or visit www.homeword.org.

Promising projects

These proposed developments indicate good conservation and affordable housing practices. However, the development needs to be completed before the outcomes will be known.

Galisteo Basin Preserve – New Mexico
White Brook Farm — Massachusetts

Know of an example? Tell us about it!

We’d like to hear about other examples of affordable conservation development. If you know of a development, please contact Kendra Briechle, Manager, Center for Conservation and Development. Your projects may be added to this webpage to help others trying to forge new partnerships and launch projects combining conservation and affordable housing.