"Most developers are not educated in land development,” says Ron Tyne, president of Rocket Properties in Little Rock, Ark., offering a theory as to why land plans that satisfy increasingly stricter land-use regulations and open-space edicts are a tough nut for developers. “Simple lot yield is no longer the No. 1 priority. It takes a different mindset to turn that around.”

Like the one Tyne and his team applied at Woodland’s Edge, a 780-acre parcel his company first purchased in 2001 and has carefully crafted to become the nation’s first four star–rated community under the National Green Building Standard (NGBS), earn the first American Trails Developer Award, and be named the NAHB’s 2009 Green Development of the Year.

Source: Builder Magazine, September 2010