Habitat Trails - Rogers, Arkansas
Stephen Luoni and Aaron Gabriel, University of Arkansas
Community Design Center
For socially and environmentally conscious designers, every
new plan to build on a greenfield site should beg a funda-
mental set of questions: Should we be building on such
undeveloped sites at all? Are there more resourceful solu-
tions, such as urban infill? How can we reconcile the act of
building with a broader responsibility to keep the social and
environmental costs of new development in check?
These are tough questions-none answerable by any
single project. But as this winner of a Place Planning award
shows, there are concrete ways to move-and build -out
of this ethical dilemma. The key may be to develop in
ways that look beyond simply minimizing a project's own
Above: Site plan for the Habitat Trails development.
Opposite: A system of green streets and pervious surfaces will slow runoff and
reduce the flow of pollutants into streams and lakes.
ecological footprint and, instead, seek to substantively
improve the larger physical and social landscape.
The plan for Habitat Trails clusters seventeen new
homes on a five-acre former agricultural site in Rogers, a
city of 40,000 in northwest Arkansas. As the first "green"
residential development in the state, it paints a convinc-
ing picture of how a new development on previously open
ground can do this.
The project involved investigation of four target fabrics:
open space, green streets, hydrology, and vernacular house
typologies. It proposed mechanisms to retain and treat
all storm runoff on site; it set aside significant areas as
common open space; and it offered schematic proposals for
seven house types that could be built within a limited con-
struction budget of $55 per square foot.
The jury chose the project, submitted by Stephen
Luoni, director of the University of Arkansas Community
Luoni and Gabriel / Habitat Trails118

2006 EDRAIPlaces Awards Planning
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Design Center, because of its resourcefulness in weaving
together the built and hydrological landscapes, its innova-
tive adaptation of vernacular house typologies, and its com-
mitment to pushing local government to adopt important
modifications to existing sprawl-inducing zoning codes.
Treading Lightly, Cutting Deep
The client for the project was the well-known nonprofit
housing developer Habitat for Humanity. Founded in 1976
by Christian missionaries, Habitat chapters around the
United States and overseas build homes for the working
poor through a program of donations, volunteer labor, and
sweat equity by prospective homeowners.
The work of the Benton County, Arkansas, chapter had
recently been stymied by increases in local land values,
however. In effect, it had been priced out of local real
estate markets by private developers who had been carpet-
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ing the area with standard 2oo-to-4 oo-house subdivisions,
presumably in response to the opening of Wal-Mart's cor-
porate headquarters in neighboring Bentonville. Debbie
Wieneke, the chapter's executive director, eventually real-
ized the chapter would need a new approach if it were to
continue its mission to build affordable homes.
In a recent interview with the University of Arkan-
sas student newspaper, Wieneke explained how the new
project takes the chapter's effort to a whole new level.
"Normally we have one simple home on one lot," She said.
"Now, boom: we're going to put 17 families on five acres
with a wetlands area in one corner, a neighborhood park in
the middle, and a vast variety of plants, trees and landscap-
ing that we've never had an opportunity to do before."
If Wal-Mart is to blame for pricing Habitat out of the
local land market, the multinational retailer can also be
credited for helping it get back in. It provided the largest
Places 18.3 19