As SilverStar Destinations continues to refine what will ultimately be proposed as our development plan for the Village at Sunriver, we will continue to release additional information on the details of our plans and to respond to some of the misconceptions about our plans that have been discussed in the public record.
One misconception is that the mixed-use Village model is only applicable to large ski resorts. While some of the most well known examples of mixed-use resort Villages are at ski areas throughout North America, the development model has been used at a variety of scales in a variety of resorts and communities throughout North America. Due to their notoriety, we have used a number of these ski resort Villages as examples of the development model in our public meetings and in our testimony to the planning commission. Subsequently, some members of the community have focused solely on these examples and the ways in which these ski resort Villages are not the same as the community of Sunriver. In reality, this development model has been used in a wide variety of resorts and communities throughout North America with very successful results. In addition, these developments can embody many of the principles of the environmental building movement.
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP/LEED NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGNATION (ND)
Recently, the US Green Building Council, the Congress for New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council – three organizations that represent some of the nation’s leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, developers, and the environmental community have come together to develop a national set of standards for neighborhood location and design based on the combined principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building. The goal of this partnership is to establish standards for assessing and rewarding environmentally superior development practices within the rating framework of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.
While LEED programs have primarily focused on green building practices, a new program, LEED for Neighborhood Development, is being created to reward projects that place an emphasis on the design and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape. The LEED ND program is guided by sources such as the Smart Growth Network’s ten principles of smart growth, the Charter of the New Urbanism, and other LEED rating systems. Through this system, it is hoped that neighborhoods will be created that do the following:
- Revitalize existing urban areas
- Reduce land consumption
- Reduce automobile dependence
- Promote pedestrian activity
- Improve air quality
- Decrease polluted storm water runoff
- Build more livable, sustainable communities
The Village at Sunriver has been conceived to meet the standards of the LEED ND program. At the time of the completion of the Conceptual Site Plan application, SilverStar Destinations plans on submitting the Village for accreditation in the LEED ND program. This rating system will ensure that the Village meets independently established standards for assessing and rewarding environmentally superior developments which we believe is a common goal of the Sunriver Community.
MIXED USE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENTS
Medium-density, mixed-use Village developments embody the spirit and principles of the LEED ND and smart growth movements. By combining residential, commercial and retail uses in one neighborhood, automobile dependence is reduced, density is concentrated in the core so that it does not sprawl out into the natural landscape, land and infrastructure are efficiently utilized and a sense of “place” is created that provides a focal point for community activities.
Over the past 25 years, the smart growth movement and the development of mixed use Villages have grown hand in hand. There are currently hundreds of communities and resorts that have been developed as mixed-use Villages under these principles. These communities represent mountain resorts, warm weather resorts and communities that are not near resorts at all that just want a vibrant mixed-use core. These developments have revitalized their respective communities in the same way that our Village will revitalize Sunriver. Some examples of these communities are:
Arizona
- Verrado, Buckeye
- Market Street (DC Ranch), Scottsdale
- Kierland Commons, Phoenix
California
- Bay Meadows, Bay Area
- Santana Row, San Jose
- Village at Squaw
- City of American Canyon Town Center, Napa
- Village at Northstar
- Paseo Colorado, Pasadena
- Sonoma Mountain Village
- Uptown District, San Diego
- Village at Mammoth
- Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica
- Bay Street, Emeryville
- Gray’s Crosssing, Truckee
- Old Town La Quinta, Palm Springs
Colorado
- River Run at Keystone
- Copper Mountain
- Village at Snowmass
- Winter Park
- Vail
- Beaver Creek
- Wild Horse, Steamboat
Florida
- Sandestin, Destin
- Celebration, Orlando
- Haile Plantation, Gainesville
- Village of Imagine, Orlando
- MiraBay Village, Apollo Beach
- Sheridan Stationside Village
- Miami Lakes Town Center, Miami Lakes
- Mizner Park, Boca Raton
- Winter Park Village, Winter Park
Hawaii
- Honua Kai, Maui
- Whaler’s Village, Maui
Idaho
- Tamarack
Illinois
- The Glen Town Center, Glenview
Iowa
- Village of Ponderosa, West Des Moines
Massachusetts
- Mashpee Commons, Cape Cod
Montana
- Mountain Village, Whitefish
Maryland
- Bethesda Row, Bethesda
- Kentlands, Gaithersburg
- King Farm, Gaithersburg
Nevada
- Monte Lago Village
New Hampshire
- Village at Loon Mountain
New Jersey
- Mountain Creek
North Carolina
- Birkdale Village, Huntersville
Oregon
- Juniper Ridge, Bend
- Orenco Station, Portland
- 500 Bond (proposed), Bend
- The Mercato, (proposed), Bend
- 15th and Wilson, (proposed), Bend
South Carolina
- Hilton Head
- Village at Wild Dunes, Charleston
- Village at Kiawah, Charleston
Tennessee
- Harbor Town, Memphis
- Brainerd Town Center, Chatanooga
Texas
- Southlake Town Center, South Lake
Utah
- Village at Solitude
Vermont
- Stratton
- Stowe
Virginia
- Bayside Village, Cape Charles
- Fairfax Corner, Fairfax
- The Market Common, Clarendon
- Reston Town Center, Reston
Washington
- Suncadia, Roslyn
West Virginia
- Snowshoe
Canada
- Whistler/Blackcomb, British Columbia
- Blue Mountain, Ontario
- Tremblant, Quebec
- Revelstoke, Alberta
- Panorama, British Columbia
- Three Sisters Mountain Village, Canmore, Alberta
- McKenzie Town Center, Calgary
CONCLUSION
Over the years, many of us have been trained to think that density is bad. We have created preconceptions of what a shopping center is. Some of us have even created preconceptions that Sunriver will always be a resort community with a small full-time population and three months of activity per year that will always be dependent upon Bend to provide its goods and services. SilverStar Destinations and our supporters do not share these views. By integrating smart growth concepts, a medium-density mixed-use development model and LEED ND principles into The Village at Sunriver, we believe that we can make Sunriver a vibrant and self-sustaining community that will benefit its residents, visitors and Deschutes County as a whole.
