A Colorado State University institute has launched a one-of-a-kind standard for lifelong communities with the first pre-certified neighborhood in north Fort Collins.
CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment has been working for more than six years to develop the Lifelong Homes and Lifelong Communities yardstick, which designates properties with “features that support active, accessible, healthy, sustainable living for all who live there.”
Sonders Fort Collins is a community north of Fort Collins Country Club with 375 ranch residences designed and built by Thrive Home Builders and Bridgewater Homes.
“The original intention of the Lifelong Homes initiative was to create a variety of different tools that developers and homebuilders could use, including a certification program,” said Clayton Bartczak, IBE’s community engagement and sustainability specialist.
“We’ve also developed a design guideline that can be used as an assessment tool for existing homes and by homeowners who want to assess their current home.”
Designed for the long term
The amenities at Sonders will include multiple trails and five parks (including one for dogs), a learning center, a gym, a swimming pool with grilling and lounging areas, a golf putting green, spirituality space, an art studio and a community garden, among others.
Dan Nickless, principal at Actual Communities, LLP – the developer of Sonders Fort Collins – said one park along Richard’s Lake is open. He said most amenities could open throughout 2024.
Some Sonders homes include solar panels and are accessible to any age group, including those with disabilities. Social connections, classes, health and wellness are prioritized.
The Thrive homes are ENERGY STAR and LEED certified, they have solar panels, and some will carry the Lifelong Home designation. Bridgewater Homes are ENERGY STAR certified. Sonders is planning an expanded community just east of Sonders Fort Collins.
Precertification is important
The goal for the amenities is to be enjoyed by and enhanced with input from community members.
“These are basically opportunities for residents to come together in a very casual, very fun environment with programs that are meant for them and oftentimes directed by them,” said Sonders Fort Collins spokesperson Ethan Demby.
The community is not for assisted living, but rather to delay the need for such facilities, said Bill Swalling, the founder of Actual Communities: “That’s why some of the homes here offer optional accessory dwelling opportunities for live-in care as our residents age.”
Swalling said the precertification is important because residents will know they will be in a community designed for a healthy culture of active aging. The Lifelong Communities certification wraps together the same sustainability features with features focused on residents’ longevity for “happier, healthier, more connected, longer lives.”
Partnerships across price ranges
The Sonders development features homes currently on sale from between $650,000 and slightly more than $1 million.
But IBE also is working with Housing Catalyst, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver and other nonprofit organizations that build single-family and multi-family affordable housing units. IBE is collaborating on other pilot projects across Colorado.
“We’re looking for partners across a wide variety of building types and price ranges,” Bartczak said. “And we want to make sure that we’re creating a certification program that’s applicable to a variety of different end users.”
Concept to reality
Bartczak said the connection with Sonders finally took concept to reality.
“Our partnership with the Sonders development team has been integral for us to take the certification program to the next step and upgrade the level of thinking, both in terms of applicability and feasibility of different criteria,” he said. “They have their real-world experience of how developments actually happen and the constraints and opportunities that developers find.”
Bartczak said one of the reasons a lifelong homes and communities standard has not already been developed is that builders have not had incentive to do so.
Bartczak hopes that changes: “The biggest hurdle we’re trying to overcome is creating a reason for builders and developers to actually build these homes, and at the same time providing education to potential home buyers about what’s possible, so that they can then ask their builders for those design elements.”
The Institute for the Built Environment resides within CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
