Oakland Park - Green Community in Orlando Florida (between Winter Garden and Oakland)
Oakland Park is Central Florida's First redesential community to be Green Certified

Oakland Park, Central Florida's first residential community to be certified "green" by the Florida Green Building Coalition, has added Sunscape Homes of Windermere to its short list of approved builders.

Bob Hennen, vice president of sales and marketing for Castle & Cooke Florida, Oakland Park's developer, said that Sunscape joins Castle & Cooke Homes, Bradford Building Co., Brentwood Custom Homes and Goehring & Morgan Construction Inc.

Sunscape has been building custom homes in affluent communities throughout Central Florida for more than 24 years, under the direction of founder and chief executive Rick Carr. He is a former president of the Master Custom Builder Council in Central Florida and received the trade group's builder of the year award in 2002.

Carr said the company will start work on its first house in Oakland Park -- a four-bedroom Spanish-colonial-style home -- during the second quarter.

Each of the 750 homes planned for the Oakland Park community in west Orange County will have to be certified as "green" according to FGBC standards, meaning that they meet certain criteria for energy efficiency, water thriftiness and environmental sustainability.

For example, the community will not plant the standard St. Augustine landscape grass that is so prevalent in Florida, because of its relatively high irrigation needs. Other types of sod will be used instead.

Nestled between Winter Garden and Oakland, Oakland Park combines the architecture and colorful history of the region with the core principles of Friendly Neighborhood Design to create a vibrant new Central Florida community. Designed to enhance and encourage the melding of home, family, community, and environment, this inviting collection of tree-lined streets, parks, and residential neighborhoods on the shores of Lake Apopka promises both exceptional quality homes and something too often missing in today's communities - a true sense of belonging.

Castle & Cooke calls it 'a walkable community' and says it is 'planned around a connected network of streets and trails.'

There are strict rules to follow when building a home according to "green" standards. Creating an entire green community is even trickier.

But the developers of Oakland Park est. 1844, a new community of traditional homes being built on the southern shore of Lake Apopka, aim to do just that.

Castle & Cooke launched the 258-acre Oakland Park in the spring and is now building the first of its 64 homes in Phase 1/A. The community - which, when completed, will have 750 residential units - is also unique in that it lies in two municipalities: Winter Garden and Oakland.

It was announced by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) in April that Oakland Park is officially a "green development," the first in Central Florida to earn the designation. Six other communities in Florida have received the designation since the FGBC was founded in 2000.

Castle & Cooke further announced that each home built in the community will be required to be certified as green according to FGBC standards.

Why build green?

Homes built to green standards "reduce consumption of electricity and water, preserving precious resources," according to Castle & Cooke. "A home that has been certified as green has less impact on the environment than a home built without green standards."

The 5,500-square-foot sales center on Oakland Avenue - the first home completed in Oakland Park - has been certified as well and has many environmentally friendly features built into the design. It includes:

• high-performance windows - tall, double-paned windows filled with argon gas between the panes. The glass is also coated with a low-emission coating that lets in the light but not the heat.
• Icynene foam insulation - soft-foam and air-barrier insulation system that is sprayed directly onto the inside of the metal roof sheathing. Applied as a liquid, Icynene expands to 100 times its volume in seconds to fill cracks and crevices while remaining flexible to maintain the integrity of the building envelope.
• high-efficiency "can lights" - 26-watt, plug-in fluorescent bulbs that can be controlled by a dimmer switch, unlike other fluorescent lighting fixtures.
• high-efficiency air-conditioning units - the building's energy-saving features made it possible to reduce the size of the cooling units by half, compared to what ordinarily would be required for a building that size.
• gas-fired tankless water heater - this appliance saves money by not storing and reheating water on a continual basis. Instead, it generates hot water instantly on an as-needed basis.
• pollutant-free indoor air quality - interior paints are rated as "low-VOC" paints, which refers to the amount of volatile organic compounds in the paint.
• drought-tolerant landscaping - uses native Florida plants and a drip-irrigation system.

Other green features that can be used in Oakland Park's homes are a built-in pest control system, carpeting, cabinets and Energy Star-rated fixtures and appliances.

To be certified as a green home, its builder must document each home's features using a checklist that awards points for environmentally friendly features. A minimum of 200 points is required.

Several options will be available to enable each home to attain the green standard.

"These features and others will be offered to home buyers as part of Oakland Park's commitment to green home building," said Bob Hennen, director of sales and marketing for Castle & Cooke Florida. "One of the strengths of the green building movement in Florida is that there are a number of different approaches that a buyer can take. You are not forced to include all of those features, but you can take some of them and combine them with other approaches to be officially designated as a 'green house.' There is a fair amount of flexibility in achieving that standard."

John Rinehart, vice president of Castle & Cooke Florida, said that achieving the green development designation "requires more than a documented commitment to environmental protection."

He said: "It's a mind-set. We have tried to build green principles and green thinking into Oakland Park's DNA. It's not only a commitment on our part, but, ultimately, it's going to be a commitment on the part of our residents who will make their homes here."

There are four builders in Oakland Park: Castle & Cooke Homes and custom home builders Bradford Building Corp., Brentwood Custom Homes and Goerhing & Morgan.

Officials at Oakland Park say that while it might cost more initially to build a green home, homeowners tend to view it as an investment that will eventually pay off monetarily and in terms of impact on the environment.

In addition to going green in its homes, Oakland Park is also dedicated to creating 14 small parks and civic spaces to further the natural aspect of the neighborhood.

Construction has begun on several single-family homes in the first phase, which is closest to the south shore of Lake Apopka. Castle & Cooke has committed to restoring one-third of a mile of the lakefront and creating a community park that will bring residents to the lake.

Linking the different neighborhoods throughout Oakland Park - creating an array of pathways, pedestrian walks and trails - is another way of thinking green.

The idea behind planning for naturalistic, open spaces nestled among homes is to draw residents outside and encourage social interaction.

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