Housing development in urban areas has changed drastically over the last several years as a generational shift toward less reliance on vehicles is occurring, making an area’s walkability a major factor in housing development for both builders and residents.
Millennials are eschewing vehicles for bicycles and walking as their main modes of transportation, forcing developers to rethink where and how they build, Z Smith, a principal partner in the New Orleans design firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, told audience members during a panel discussion on “Green Urban Multifamily Housing: Better Health, Better Savings” at the Louisiana Smart Growth Summit this morning.
“We need efficient buildings that are healthy places to work, and you need people to be able to get to those workplaces efficiently,” Smith said. “People building housing need to respond to that generational shift.”
In recent years, buildings have begun receiving walkability scores on a 100-point scale based on their proximity to restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies and other places people need in everyday life. Smith said in most markets, every point in the walkability score adds between $500 to $3,000 in home values, showing that walkability sells. It also has a tremendous impact on a person’s health, leading to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, he said.
“Where we build and how densely we build has not only a tremendous impact on the global environment, but on the health of the people who live there,” Smith said.
Smith was joined on the panel by fellow New Orleans residents Monica Gonzales, senior program director with Enterprise Community Partners; Heidi Woodard, director of the multifamily group with Wisznia Architecture and Development; and Marina Michael, a research fellow with Eskew+Dumez+Ripple to talk about how the green movement is impacting housing development.
Woodard shared tips with the audience on how businesses can take simple steps to reduce their energy use and bills. She recently joined Wisznia and said she was floored when she got the first utility bill from Entergy.
She immediately gathered the property managers together and implemented cost-effective ways to lower their energy usage and make their buildings more energy efficient, including turning the temperature up a few degrees in vacant units and common areas, removing bulbs from fluorescent lighting fixtures, turning the refrigerator up and water heater off in vacant units. She immediately noticed less electricity usage using the benchmark tool WegoWise, which showed energy use declining by as much as 17% each month.
“You can easily measure and illustrate your cost savings when you use a benchmarking tool,” Woodard said.
—Ryan Broussard
