Okla. TND breaks ground

The Humphreys Company of Oklahoma City began clearing land in December in eastern Oklahoma for Carlton Landing, a lakeside, mostly second-home community that will include an organic farm, a town center, and a wedding chapel. Developer Grant Humphreys said construction will start in April on 18 spec houses financed by a bank, with the loan collateralized by agricultural land. Humphreys said that in general, “the way we’re going is with no debt.” Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) master-planned 970 of Humphreys’ 1,600 acres in July 2008, aiming to create a community that will have what Humphreys describes as “an intentionally simple lifestyle.” A market analysis by Zimmerman/Volk Associates projected that the development, on Lake Eufaula, could sell 79 houses per year, 75 percent of them for vacation use. Steve Mouzon is to define an Oklahoma vernacular that will be the basis of the development’s architecture. Tom Low and Guy Pearlman of DPZ have provided a “Light Imprint” overlay incorporating sustainable principles into land development. Carlton Landing “may be one of the first large-scale projects where the Light Imprint form of New Urbanism is widely applied,” Humphreys said. An organic town farm is expected to begin operating in 2011 on two acres. Eventually it may expand to 30 acres. Over 25 to 30 years, as many as 2,500 houses may be built in the development, about a two-hour drive from Oklahoma City and three hours from Dallas. “I think we can sell 30 lots in 2010 and 50 lots in 2011,” Humphreys said.