America's Top 10 Best Green-Built Neighborhoods

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Northwest Crossing in Bend, Oregon, offers residents 32 acres of parks. Photo Courtesy Northwest Crossing

Our favorite planned communities strive for responsible construction and promote sustainable living. Many are certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program; others have local or state certifications for energy efficiency. Here’s a look at our top picks.

Think your community should be part of Natural Home’s next top 10? Send us your information! E-mail editor@naturalhomemagazine.com with subject line “My community.”

1. Mueller
Austin, Texas 

On a former brownfield site, Mueller is a 700-acre mixed-use community that is home to more than 700 families, 25 percent of whom qualify as low-income.

■ 140 acres of open park space and hiking and biking trails
■ First Texas community to earn silver certification in the LEED-ND program
■ Community saves trees from surrounding developments and plants them on park grounds.

2. Madison Street
Chattanooga, Tennessee

A formerly dilapidated neighborhood near downtown, Madison Street is a flourishing artist community filled with galleries, studios and restaurants—and home to Chattanooga’s first LEED-certified homes.

■ Homes made with locally harvested and manufactured materials
■ Efficient building methods, HVAC systems, windows and appliances; nontoxic interior finish materials
■ Native, noninvasive groundcover and permeable paving

3. Northwest Crossing
Bend, Oregon 

A 486-acre mixed-used community, Northwest Crossing is near 32 acres of parks and has retail stores, locally owned restaurants and schools.

■ All buildings and homes certified by Oregon’s Earth Advantage program
■ Site planned to conserve native Ponderosa trees; xeriscaping throughout community
■ Mandatory stormwater retention and construction waste recycling 

4. Pine Ridge
Ketchum, Idaho

Affordable housing and easy access to bus lines and bike paths makes eco-living tangible in Pine Ridge.

■ Urban infill project on site of an abandoned hotel
■ Native, drought-tolerant landscaping
■ Eco-friendly and salvaged building materials  

5. Prairie Crossing
Grayslake, Illinois 

Prairie Crossing, a progressive, 359-unit, LEED-ND neighborhood, offers an elaborate alternative energy system and an advanced charter school.

■ Geothermal system, wind turbine and photovoltaic (PV) solar panels power and heat buildings.
■ Former waste site now serves as train station parking lot 
■ Certified organic commercial farm