Back to Nature

Walking trails and neighborhood parks top the list for new home buyers

By Mary Booth Thomas

Months before Tom and Mellisa Cotton moved into their home at River Rock, their family visited the community every weekend, hiking through the natural areas and kayaking on the Etowah River.

“We love hiking and my husband loves kayaking. This is a beautiful setting with a lot of green space. Our property backs up to a creek and we can follow it to the river and hike for a couple of hours along the Etowah,” Mellisa Cotton says.

The Cottons and their two daughters, Madalene and Caroline, moved from Alpharetta in December to the Pathway Communities’ master-planned community in Forsyth County. The green space and location on the banks of the Etowah River were part of the attraction.

They are members of a growing contingent of homebuyers who value green space and nature preserves in their communities as much as a swimming pool or tennis courts.

“Green space and amenities are a big attraction for buyers. People are spending more time with their family these days and they want to be outside. They’re looking for communities with more green space, more areas to toss a ball or go for a hike,” says Rayna Coggins, sales manager for Carter Grove Plantation, a Cartersville community with 600 acres of green space and amenities.

It wasn’t long ago that a typical Atlanta area subdivision’s amenity package was likely to be a swimming pool and a tennis court surrounded by a chain-link fence.

As cities and counties adopted environmentally conscious regulations that protect creeks and streams and preserve trees, developers realized that large areas of green space were a hit with homeowners and began including them in their development plans.

Then, faced with soaring land prices, developers began building on smaller lots to keep home prices reasonable and common green space and community parks became even more important, says Alec Rickenbaker, chief operating officer for Peachtree Residential Properties.

“We are definitely incorporating more green space into our communities to meet the demands of today’s homebuyers. Homeowners are looking for a well-designed community with common areas, gathering spaces and green space. There’s a huge demand for walking trails and they are part of our community design these days,” he adds.

When Mike and Nedra Khan moved to the Atlanta area, they looked at a lot of communities and settled on Carmichael Farms because the rolling hills, proliferation of trees and open space in the equestrian community reminded them of their home with acreage in Brentwood, Tenn.

“We liked the way Carmichael Farms is designed because we feel like we have breathing room. The homes felt right on top of each other in a lot of communities,” Nedra Khan says.

Located in Cherokee County, Carmichael Farms is a 340-acre equestrian community will 110 acres of reserve green space. When completed, the community with have 340 home sites and a 50-stall barn with a covered riding arena, paddocks, a hay barn and an activity center that will offer children an up-close and personal relationship with farm and domestic animals. Already, the community has rescued a family of cats who live in the sales center.

“This community offers a true taste of rural America in a metropolitan area,” says Kim Smith, sales agent for Solid Source Realtors. “This part of Cherokee County was once a farming area. Carmichael Farms keeps a little bit of that heritage intact.”

Incorporating Open Green Space
In addition to an elaborate amenity package that includes a swimming pool, tennis courts, fitness center, playground and a clubhouse that resembles a restored farmhouse, Carmichael Farms will have horse trails, nature trails throughout the entire community, a fitness trail with fitness stations and a cutting garden.

Pathway Communities set the standard for green space when it developed Peachtree City, a master-planned community in Fayette County, Phillip Corley, Pathway’s vice president for marketing, points out.

“Our communities had open space before it was a trend. Our latest community, River Rock, has 40 percent open space with frontage on the Etowah River and an amenity package that complements the natural environment,” Corley says.

The community’s swimming pools are filled with saltwater, an environmentally conscious choice that has the added benefit of being easier on the skin. An earthen amphitheater, under construction, follows the natural contours of the land. The entire amenity package is beside the river and walking trails that will wind throughout the community are under construction.

“We are a transient society and people have lost the art of connecting with one another, but green space is conducive to social connectivity. People meet each other while they’re enjoying the environment. Walking trails for us are more than just a nice amenity. They’re another connection point for residents,” Corley says.

Residents of Carter Grove Plantation can enjoy eight miles of walking trails that wind through the natural areas in their community and connect to the City of Cartersville’s trail system.

Community amenities include an 18-hole semi-private golf course, a tennis complex with stadium seating, an aquatic center with multiple pools, a sports pavilion with basketball and volleyball courts and a state-of-the-art playground.

The community design leaves as many trees as possible intact, creating natural settings for the homes and giving residents privacy, Coggins says.

All of the sidewalks in the community are suitable for golf carts, making it possible for residents to drive to the golf course, the amenity center or a supermarket at the entrance to the community without getting in their cars.

Peachtree Residential’s gated community, St. Michael’s Bay at Lake Lanier, is designed around a huge amenity center, a marina with private covered slips and walking trails around the lake.

Residents have private access to the lake and can enjoy swimming, fishing or boating. The Bay Club, a community clubhouse, located near the shoreline, features a gathering room, billiards room, fitness center, showers and changing areas. Other amenities include a zero-entry pool with a lap section for adults and a children’s section with a mushroom waterfall and a tennis center with lighted courts.

On the south side of town in Clayton County, the Lake Spivey community is on the shore of a 500-acre lake owned and managed by the Lake Spivey Civic Association. The lake is the only private lake of its size in the Atlanta area that allows water skiing and jet skis.

“The advantage to living here is that you can come home from work, go down to the dock and go water skiing or take a boat ride around the lake and enjoy nature. It’s a private lake so it’s never crowded. About 20 creeks and streams feed into the lake so there’s a constant flow of water and we have no problem with the drought,” says Lane Farmer with Keller-Williams Lake Spivey.

The Lake Spivey community includes more than a half-dozen subdivisions, many with lake frontage and offering new construction and homes for resale.

“At Lake Spivey, the biggest attraction is the lifestyle. It’s gorgeous here. From the lake, you can see hawks fishing, great blue heron, ducks, geese and even deer,” Farmer says. “There are wetland areas that won’t be developed and natural areas all around the lake.”