REAL ESTATE : High-Density, Low-Cost Homes Project to Get Underway in 3 Weeks
The crew at RecreActions Group of Cos. in Newport Beach launched a revolutionary set of plans last year: extremely high-density detached housing--as many as 18 homes to an acre.
Architects McLarand, Vasquez & Partners in Costa Mesa designed the project, which uses auto courtyards and some creative lot shapes to squeeze so many homes onto so little land while allowing for rear and side yards that separate each house.
But difficulties in obtaining financing delayed the builder’s proposed early spring groundbreaking by nearly half a year.
Three weeks from now, however, RGC and Santa Margarita Co. start installing streets, sewers and other site improvements for a pair of projects in Rancho Santa Margarita that will bring Orange County 340 of the lowest-priced detached homes built since the early 1980s.
At 15 units to the acre in one development and 13.5 to the acre in the other, RGC has increased densities by as much as three times the norm for detached homes.
“They aren’t for 10-member families,” RGC President Hal Lynch said, “but they are detached, and they have their own yards and two-car garages.”
They also will start at $128,000 for a 900 square-foot, two-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath model and run up to $167,000 for the 1,480-square-foot, four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath model. RGC has plans for other high-density projects in Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties.
