Native Grasses Meet the Burbs

In an obviously difficult market for new housing, Cross Creek Ranch is standing out from the pack with a master-planned community that restores a degraded dirt parcel to a native landscape.

1 minute read

October 4, 2011, 5:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


Theresa Burney at Builder Magazine reports on one thing you'll find at Cross Creek Ranch you won't find in many master-planned communities: deliberately wild and unkempt landscaping. The green space "...mimics the native coastal prairie by including tall grasses that don't need to be mowed."

Trendmaker Development has planted thousands of trees on the land and attempted as much as possible to improve the natural state:

"When Trendmaker bought the 3,300-acre parcel it was flat, almost treeless, farmland bisected by an eroded ditch. Under the direction of landscape architects SWA Group, the ditch became more akin to a creek with native black willows planted on its banks to naturally stabilize the stream."

Friday, September 30, 2011 in Builder Magazine

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