This land has been in our family since the 1860's and we feel a strong sense of responsibility to protect the integrity of the natural elements of this property while allowing it to serve the needs of a growing society. However, our motivation goes beyond our family heritage, we believe strongly that we all need to use common sense with respect to how we use our earth's natural resources.

Our vision is to provide people with a superior quality of life and sense of community through the creation of a sustainable residential development that is an asset to the region, protects and preserves the environment, and sets higher standards of sustainability for future developments.

In the year 2000, we began seriously thinking about how we would develop parts of this property for residential and/or commercial uses. The more we thought about it and studied the consequences of the rapid conversion of land to permanent development, the more it became clear that we needed to do something different than the traditional "cookie cutter" developments. Since that time, we have made a significant investment in learning about the concept of low impact development. What we have found is that it is definitely possible to do this. And in fact, is being done successfully in many places around the world, and it is being accomplished without having to make sacrifices or radical changes in lifestyle.

Our learning path has included participation in numerous national and international workshops and conferences, a comprehensive design project with a team of students and researchers at the University of Illinois, engagement of internationally recognized experts on low impact developments, countless meetings with state and local stakeholders, as well as internal planning retreats. We have learned many things along the way.

Perhaps the biggest thing that we have learned is that common sense can go a long way. Even though the challenges are complex, stepping back to consider all of the pieces from a holistic perspective will yield common sense solutions that can dramatically reduce the negative impacts of urban sprawl.