Location, Location, Location

As any developer can tell you, it's all about the location.

Greenth Street's location is indeed a bonus. For one, the new house site faces South, rather than East, allowing more sun exposure for the front porch and minimizing heat-loss during the winter. Second, the site is adjacent to both the Des Moines Forest Avenue Public Library and Evelyn Davis Park. It also sits along a main public bus route, offering an affordable mass transportation option to the house's owner. The house is also only a few blocks from Drake University and is about a mile north of downtown Des Moines.

Fig. 1 1347 Forest Avenue: the property line lies between the
pink post on the left and the middle of the driveway on the right.

Fig. 2 Forest Avenue Public Library

Fig. 3 Kids playing in the fountain at Evelyn Davis Park

Another sustainable feature of the house location is that it is an urban infill site. "Infill" is a term used to describe land that was previously developed for residential or commercial use. By building on an infill lot, virgin or undeveloped land may be saved for agricultural use, wildlife habitat, or public green space. Developing blighted infill lots also helps raise adjacent homeowner's land values. In the case of Greenth Street, 1347 Forest Avenue was previously home to a building which the City of Des Moines demolished due to poor structural integrity.

CHDC believes that the location of Greenth Street truly enhances the sustainability of the project.