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This 1999 project was the product of a charrette led by the Anderson Bess Design Group, a joint venture of Thursday Associates and Anderson Lamb & Associates. The site is the Henry Davis Property, a 536-acre parcel located about 10 miles east of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in Ada Township approximately 3 miles north of the unincorporated Village of Ada. In its environmental, economic, and social implications, the proposal here presented is unique in the post-War history of real estate development in Western Michigan.

The property is in a growth corridor, and sits in the midst of a largely rural and agricultural landscape that has already begun to be transformed by conventional sprawl development of one-to-three acre/s per dwelling unit construction. The site is occupied by the Davis Farm, a combination of agricultural land, forests, meadows, and regulated wetlands; as well as an operative 200-acre gravel mine bordered by Pettis Road to the southwest. Contiguous to the northwest portion of the site is a 40-acre horse farm; and contiguous to that, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Pettis and Knapp Roads, is a 115-acre parcel owned by the Forest Hills Public School District for the future development of as many as three new schools covering grades K-12. The Davis Property is currently zoned as a "special use parcel," with anticipated permissible overall density of one dwelling unit per acre. It was the desire of the developer client to match or exceed the legally allowable density, but to preserve the sites natural amenities and make them available to the public in a manner that conventional sprawl development would not have allowed.

In keeping with these intentions, the Anderson Bess Design Group took a holistic approach to the work so that in addition to being an economically viable human settlement it would also do the following things: 1) preserve and enhance the most significant features of the parcel’s existing natural and agricultural landscape, and make much of it publicly accessible; 2) restore the scarred landscape of the gravel mine; 3) create a mixed-use, mixed-age, and mixed-income physical environment of pedestrian-friendly public and private places; and 4) achieve all these things in an environmentally responsible way, paying special attention to issues of fresh water supply, waste water disposal, and traffic congestion. Our design has attempted to realize these objectives in the following ways. . . .

Davis Farm Development (100 dwelling units, 330 acres): The most scenic and picturesque portions of the site are the natural and agricultural landscapes of the Davis Farm. These we have attempted to preserve and highlight by creating large estate lots and small clusters of residential development around several of the Farm’s most significant features, which we have simultaneously attempted to preserve; and also by leaving portions of the working (agricultural) farm undisturbed, potentially available for lease as subscription farmland. Our proposed developments include: High Point, estate lots in the northwest corner of the Farm near the community well head and the site’s highest point, which features a public overlook of the site towards the southwest, as well as large tracts of publicly accessible rural preserves; Davis Hollow, a cluster of residences located on the eastern portion of the Farm near the existing Davis homestead and farm buildings, also featuring rural preserves as well as a community garden; The Stables, a combination of estate lots and clustered residences in the central portion of the Farm property near the existing Davis Farm stables, surrounded by rural preserves and agricultural land and adjacent to a stream corridor; and Crescent Meadow, a crescent-row of houses fronting an existing open meadow defined by mature trees, with a stream corridor to the rear of the houses. Our proposed developments not only preserve these several existing features of the Davis Farm; they also make them publicly accessible to both residents and other members of the community through the creation of a series of pedestrian and equestrian trails that weave throughout the public areas and rural preserves of the Davis Farm development.

Gravel Mine Development (700 dwelling units, 200 acres): The gravel mine is the aesthetic "scar" on the Davis Property landscape; and it is here that we propose not a preservation of the site’s existing qualities but rather their transformation and restoration by means of higher-density, mixed-use village development. This area is laid out in a traditional village pattern of streets, blocks, and squares that accommodate and provide settings for a variety of civic buildings (library, meeting hall, church, water tower, community theater), commercial activities, and house types. The two main streets are Basin Street, which from its intersection with Pettis Avenue runs northwest about a half mile and terminates at the reflecting pond on axis with the community theater, and is fronted by houses, storefronts, and the village meeting hall; and (both accessed from, and one block northeast of, Pettis Avenue) Central Avenue, which runs about a half mile from the church at the southeast to the water tower at the northwest and is a more formal street, also fronted by storefronts near its intersection with Basin Street and by houses elsewhere along its length.

Fresh Water Supply: Our civil engineers identified, prior to the charrette, two possible on-site locations for wells sufficient to supply the fresh water needs of the project, one to the western part of the site just north east of the bend in Pettis Road, the other in the northeastern portion of the site near its high point. As the site design issues became clearer over the course of the charrette, the latter site was chosen as the preferred location for the well.

Constructed Wetlands Wastewater Treatment: All wastewater is being treated on site by means of constructed wetlands and bio-fields, an environmentally-friendly water purification process that is both cost-competitive and able to be built incrementally as the village is finished out. The constructed wetlands cells, which can be composed and constructed in either regular or irregular patterns, are comprised of various selected plant materials; and on our plan are located just north of the library, adjacent to (but separated from) some regulated and reserved natural wetlands and forest. The constructed wetlands cells are dry at the top surface and odorless, and will require minimal private maintenance from the developer. The cells can stand alone or be surrounded by and / or interspersed with other annual or perennial plantings to make an appealing aesthetic contribution to the community. The second and final location of the wastewater treatment process is the bio-field, tall prairie grasses which in the village plan are located in the westernmost block of the northern most quadrant of the village, just east of Pettis Road and a row of new cherry trees.

Traffic Congestion: Development of the Davis Property will increase the net amount of traffic in the vicinity, but significantly less than would conventional suburban development of the same site at the density that its current zoning allows. We have identified two specific ways of dealing with traffic congestion. The first is the inherent efficiency of traditional neighborhood design, which (owing to its very nature of mixing various uses within pedestrian proximity of one another) reduces the average daily number of trips individuals take in their cars. The second is the construction of three modern roundabouts, the most important one of which would be at the intersection of Pettis and Knapp Roads north of the site, just northwest of the 115-acre Forest Hills Public School District property. Modern roundabouts perform simultaneously three important functions: 1) increased traffic capacity; 2) traffic calming; and 3) increased pedestrian safety. In particular, the roundabout proposed for the corner of Knapp and Pettis will not only more efficiently handle both existing traffic and traffic generated by the Davis Property development than the current four-way stop; it will also be able (and necessary) to handle the traffic generated by any new school construction undertaken by the Forest Hills Public School District.

Public Open Space: We have endeavored to create and / or preserve a variety of open spaces that are truly public. On the Davis Farm site these include over 200 acres of forests, meadows, regulated wetlands, and agricultural land accessible by various pedestrian and equestrian trails. In the village proposed for the Gravel Mine site the public open space includes a variety of streets, civic and residential squares, constructed wetlands and bio-fields, and the allee’ of cherry trees proposed along Pettis Avenue. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the preservation and public accessibility of this quantity of open space is inconceivable within the norms of conventional suburban development.