How do you squeeze a 21-foot-wide home onto a 28-foot-wide lot?
Very thoughtfully, in the case of 100 at South Broad, a neighborhood of upscale, contemporary, two- and three-story houses and townhomes under construction behind the historic Southern Saddlery building.
The tightly-packed, standalone homes all have a private side yard - because they only have windows on one side, with the exception of some high-up, clerestory windows in staircases.
"They can't see out of the windows into this [side yard]," said the project's developer, Ethan Collier, founder, president and CEO of Collier Construction. "They're 7 feet away from the neighbor - they just don't feel it. That side yard isn't just a side yard - it's a courtyard."
That's just one of the thought-out details at the 64-unit development, inspired by New Urbanism, a planning and development approach that promotes walkable streets, housing near shopping and accessible public spaces. One of the best known examples is Seaside, Fla., a private, master-planned community that was the backdrop for the film "The Truman Show."
"Certainly that level of planning," said Collier, who considered such things as lawn size, the height of windows and what colors would be allowed - all with the idea of creating what Collier called a "sense of place."
Four standalone homes on one side of Sinclair Avenue, which Collier built through the center of the development and then got dedicated as a public street, already had been sold when Collier decided that all the standalone homes should be white with black trim with homeowners allowed to add a "pop" of color here and there.
The residents were OK with that, Collier said.
"By the way, we're changing all the colors on you," he remembers telling them. "They all said, 'OK, we trust you.'"
Chattanooga colors
To get the dozen accent colors used at the development just right, Collier walked around Chattanooga with a color palette and tried to match what he saw. So blue porches at 100 at South Broad look a lot like the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee River.
"It's a Chattanooga color," Collier said. "We spent a lot of time studying color, we battled color for months."
Collier was even willing to scrap his initial plan for 100 at South Broad after his friend, Chattanooga urban design consultant Christian Rushing, who died in February after a gallbladder cancer battle, shot the plan full of holes over a lunch.
"Christian, in typical Christian Rushing fashion, said, 'That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen,'" Collier remembers.
So Collier went back to his partners, investors and engineers in the development with a napkin covered with Rushing's notes of major changes the development needed.
"Why?" the investors asked Collier, who replied, "Christian said it would be better."
Collier chose the name Sinclair Avenue, because Sinclair was Rushing's middle name. Sinclair Avenue has 6 feet of gravel under permeable paving, so stormwater is filtered through the gravel before it empties into nearby Chattanooga Creek.
"It serves as a giant filter for the entire development," said Collier, who serves as chairman of the board of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.
Popular with empty nesters
The development, which has prices ranging from around $260,000 for a townhome to $450,000 for a standalone home with a third-floor "rooftop terrace," has been a hit with everyone from young couples with kids to empty nesters who leave Lookout and Signal mountains because they want to be closer to downtown.
Rodger and Suzanne Piersant were the second homebuyers to move into 100 at South Broad. They downsized after 31 years in the Hixson area.
"It checked all the boxes for us," said Rodger Piersant, who is partner in a display manufacturing company in Dalton, Ga., which he said is a 35-minute commute, door-to-door.
"Our city seems to have a lot of developments that look the same - ours is not," he said, citing other benefits as being close to restaurants, the Riverwalk and their kids and grandkids.
"We're grandparents, so that's particularly good for us," he said. "We get out on our bicycles in the Riverwalk two or three times per week. It's just convenient and easy to enjoy."
The Piersants customized the interior of the home to their liking - but stuck with two stories didn't opt for the third-floor "rooftop terrace."
"We needed the attic space after 31 years in the same house," Rodger Piersant said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.