A new development underway in Ann Arbor, Michigan, promises environmentally friendly homes with green features ranging from geothermal heating and cooling to sustainably sourced floors.
The development, Veridian at County Farm, is slated to become one of the few net zero, fossil fuel-free developments in the country. The project, spearheaded by developer Thrive Collaborative, plans to deliver 170 homes to mixed-income buyers through a portfolio of townhouses, single-family homes, multifamily buildings and rental opportunities.
Prices range from $250,000 for a studio unit, the high $400,000s for a two-bedroom unit, and up to $950,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse, according to Thrive Collaborative Founder Matthew Grocoff. Single-family homes will start at $1.2 million.
So far, 31 homes have been built and sold, with two multifamily buildings with 12 units each breaking ground earlier this week.
Grocoff sees Veridian as much more than a new neighborhood; rather, it's a new way of living.
“The traditional builder sells a product to a customer, and what we really wanted to do was do something much more transformative and flip the conventional American development model on its head,” Grocoff told Homes.com in an interview. “And ask this fundamental question, ‘What does good look like? How do people really want to live?’”
That answer, in Thrive Collaborative’s opinion, is a development that’s built with renewable energy, with a focus on air quality, a careful specification of products and a social well-being concentration.
Fossil fuel-free development
Veridian’s homes are powered by a combination of renewable resources: Geothermal heating and cooling — where homes harness natural heat through water pushed through a loop of pipe drilled into the ground — and solar panels.
All appliances are electric, and each home has an electric vehicle charger. Homes also have their own battery that stores energy captured by the sun. The system is designed to create a “virtual power plant” for the neighborhood, according to Grocoff.
Each home’s battery can send power to the neighborhood when needed, rather than relying on the electric grid. Utility companies can even tap into Veridian’s power supply, he said.
“Your individual battery comes from a little part of a larger power plant, effectively,” said Grocoff. “Virtual power plant is not even the right name because it’s an actual power plant, just operates differently. It’s a distributed power plant where instead of being in one place, it’s distributed among thousands of rooftops across a region.”
The batteries are manufactured by Sonnen, a subsidiary of Shell. Similar systems have been installed previously in Canada, Northern Arizona, and Cortez, Florida.
Grocoff said homeowners could potentially see negative energy bills, meaning they can be paid for the solar energy they send to the grid. One homeowner who charged their electric vehicle daily saw a $1.35 bill for July, according to Grocoff.
Chemical-free products
Products specified for inside the homes were chosen for their low concentrations of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and a group of chemicals known as PFAS. All are included in the price of the homes.
VOCs are produced most commonly in household products such as paint, furniture and flooring, and released into the air. PFAS are chemicals used in everyday products tied to adverse impacts on human health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
PFAS are common in sealants used on countertops and tiles, so Veridian specifies Dekton by Cosentino, a non-porous countertop material that doesn’t require sealing, and VOC-free wood finish from Belgian brand Rubio Monocoat. Solid wood floors come from Snowbelt Hardwoods out of Wisconsin.
The exterior details and porches use domestically sourced and sustainably harvested wood by Arbor Wood Co. The material is modified with heat and steam instead of chemicals to develop a more durable, decay-resistant product. Siding comes from TruWood, an engineered wood that utilizes sustainably sourced wood fibers combined with binders, resins and wax to help it last longer.
Grocoff describes the home design aesthetic as Swedish-inspired, even with triple-pane, tilt-and-turn Swedish windows, and a clean design with an emphasis on natural light.
Community design for well-being
Veridian’s land plan focuses on social well-being, with ample front porches positioned to face one another rather than out onto a sidewalk or street.
In the future, a bike and car share system will be developed to encourage less use of vehicles and ease of access to nearby grocery stores, accessible through a trail in the nearby 127-acre County Farm Park.
A grocery store planned to break ground within the next six months will feature locally grown produce. The two multifamily buildings underway don’t have parking or garages; instead, that square footage is added to make units larger. And rather than facing a street, Veridian replaced it with a butterfly and rain garden, said Grocoff.
The progress to answer Veridian’s question of, “How do people really want to live?” has been challenged by timing, said Grocoff, who initially proposed the development in 2016.
But patient buyers seem to believe in the purpose.
“We have the coolest buyers, and I mean that because they’re very patient because it’s taken us a long time to build, but they come from all over the country and world,” he said. “A lot of the buyers are local, known about the project a long time and have been willing to wait. … Others have come specifically because they learned about the community. … We’ve had people waiting for as long as three years for a home.”
