Green housing enclaves on the rise

Awareness about the changing environment has brought about greater concern and awareness of a lot of things related to the environment, including homes. In fact, today’s quest for livable homes does not only take into consideration the cost and the aesthetics of the housing development, but more importantly the carbon footprint that the project will leave on Mother Nature’s bosom.
This makes the booming housing industry in Davao City a good study of good environmental practices among developers.
“We are among the most affected country when it comes to global change, so anything that will help us fight this battle, like environment-friendly housing developments, would be welcome,” Department of Environment and Natural Resources 11 regional executive director Jim O. Sampulna said.
Sampulna said climate change problems are here and we are in the middle of it. The only thing we can do now, he added, is to try to adapt to these changes and try to implement adaptation measures to prevent or minimize the loss of lives, damage to property and ensure food security.
With the country hit by a series of calamities early this year, with several areas in Luzon heavily flooded, he said, every city and province should prepare for the worst.
One way to do this, he added, is by ensuring that all subdivisions undergo proper scrutiny by the City Council prior to approval of their applications to make sure that those areas that are required to get environmental compliance certificates have their ECCs.
DENR Secretary Lito Atienza had already issued an order effective last year requiring all subdivisions, from low-cost to high-end developments, to put up cisterns or  receptacles that can collect rainwater. Sampulna said the rainwater collected by the cisterns will be used for non-drinking purposes like watering homeowners’ plants, washing cars and the like.
Housing
Davao City is a haven for housing developers considering that the market is ready even for high rise development like condominiums. But how ready are these developers to provide environment-friendly housing development to Dabawenyos?
Majority of the low cost housing developments in the city are known for their very narrow roads and defective canals if ever they exist. Thus, flooding in low cost subdivisions is an ordinary scenario whenever the rains last longer than usual.
But there are new housing developments in the city that are ready to provide Dabawenyos green homes.
Camella
Take the case of Vista Land which is among the first to introduce high-end housing development in the city which do not only look good, but are environment-friendly as well.
“All our subdivisions are environment-friendly,” Camella Communities Davao general manager Marlon Escalicas said. Camella is a subsidiary of Vista Land owned by Senator Manny Villar.
Escalicas said the general rule for them is not to cut trees for as long as they will not be hit by the road development. “We conduct tree planting activities with our broker partners, agents and some homeowners inside our subdivisions to emphasize the need for trees,” he said.
They even do this along the sidewalks because it adds to the nice ambiance, makes the area cooler and it brings more life to the community, he added.
He said they have planted over a thousand trees already in the last 14 years that Camella has existed in Davao City. These trees can be found in Camella’s various developments in the city like Solariega, Toscana and Camella Northpoint.
Escalicas said they invested in as many as 1,000 Caribbean pine trees worth about P2 million for planting all over Camella Northpoint. These are imported trees which will hopefully become a grove with the towering pine trees and other age old trees in the area.
We will also have a garden in the atrium of Camella Northpoint to provide a green environment inside our condo buildings. “We value all these trees and we ensure that they are properly maintained and handled. We don’t just cut trees that easily, in fact we avoid doing so if possible,” he added.
He said they also have enough drainage to prevent flooding in the area and they conduct regular maintenance and check-ups to make sure their drainage system is functioning efficiently.
Chula Vista
Chula Vista Subdivision is a middle class housing development by the Hemeni Land Corporations, one of the companies under the HLC Group owned by Henry Lopez Chua, who is also known for developing low-cost housing subdivisions in Davao City in the past 25 years.
Hemeni Land Corporation vice president Andrea Leah Romero said Chula Vista is not only aesthetically designed, but the whole subdivision has been designed in such a way as to provide a Spanish ambiance for its homeowners, starting with the Spanish designed houses.
“This is the only subdivision in the city that has seven dry wells,” she said. The dry wells, which account for a significant percentage of the P65 million spend for Chula Vista’s land development, will make sure that the whole subdivision is safe from flooding.
Chula Vista also boasts of 15 underground drainages to make sure that excess rainwater is siphoned underground. The subdivision also boasts of a water treatment facility to make sure the development do not leave too much environmental footprint.
While there are green housing developments in the city, there are more subdivisions that still have to make clear their stand and commitment in providing Davao City with environment-friendly homes to make certain that even if the city cannot avert climate change on its own, it can however help mitigate and adapt to the changes brought about by this phenomena.  [Lovely A. Carillo]