.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
Frank Levy has seen the concept of sustainable communities in action at what seems an unlikely location – the area covered by Oakridge Neighborhood Services, which sprawls between downtown Des Moines and Interstate 235, from Sherman Hill east to Keosauqua Way.

“There is a lot of discussion about high-density, walkable, sustainable communities,” he said. “Here’s one in existence.”

Levy, president of Newbury Development Co. in West Des Moines, has spent the last two years examining the neighborhood, its aging housing stock and the lifestyles of its 900 residents in preparation for a $31 million renovation.

In addition to the nuts-and-bolts work of lining up contractors and piecing together the financing package, he has become steeped in Oakridge culture.

“In a sense, it’s a New Urbanist community,” Levy said. “People think of it as a project, but it’s much more than a project. It’s a community.”

He pointed out that Oakridge is within walking distance of downtown employers and schools, it has mature trees and it is such a high-density neighborhood that children have playmates nearby, and all of those kids have some degree of shared child care.

The neighborhood has served as a dropping-off point for immigrants during its 40-year lifespan.It reveals the region of origin of many of its occupants just through observation of its many vegetable gardens. Root vegetables indicate African origins and purple chilies the Hmong of Southeast Asia, Levy said.

Because Oakridge has an occupancy of about 95 percent, residents will have to be relocated over the course of the yearlong project, which includes installing modern appliances, creating units for sight- and hearing-impaired residents, developing 16 handicapped-accessible units and renovating the Variety Center.

Tim Urban, a member of the Oakridge board and a Greater Des Moines real estate developer, is leading a $1 million capital campaign to build a teen center and an indoor half-court basketball facility and to renovate four preschool classrooms in the Variety Center. To meet a funding deadline, $250,000 of that amount must be raised by February 2010.