Vandenburg Homes

Summary: Because of our success with another project, Vandenburg Heights, the City of Sun Prairie asked the Partnership to build five new single-family homes in the same subdivision. The resulting homes were the first "green" affordable housing project in the country.

Wisconsin Partnership's role: Developer

Staff contact: Bill Perkins

Status of work: Homes completed and sold in 1993

Vandenburg Homes, the Partnership's first project as sole developer, was built at the request of the City of Sun Prairie following the successful completion of the Vandenburg Heights project. Working with a task force assembled by State Representative Rosemary Potter, then a member of the Partnership's board of directors, we designed the first "green," or environmentally friendly, affordable housing project in the country.

The homes themselves incorporated a high standard of energy conservation, used recycled materials combined with materials whose production minimized consumption of natural resources, and were built using a construction process designed as a demonstration of on-site recycling and resource recovery. All of this was achieved within the budget constraints of an affordable housing project.

Besides producing home ownership opportunities for five families with limited incomes, the Vandenburg Homes project attracted a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that allowed the Partnership to explore expanding the use of recycled materials in affordable housing development. In addition, the lessons learned in the development of Vandenburg Homes were applied during the subsequent construction of the Coachyard Square Condominiums.