Twin-home Twofer

By Bob Sperber, Senior Editor
January 1, 2005
Professional Builder

	Village at Hickory Place: One lot, two homes, one buyer.

Cross this off the list of things that can't be done: Two detached single-family homes on one small, city lot. Cobblestone Homes made it happen in its Sonoma County, Calif., hometown of Santa Rosa.

At the Village at Hickory Place, Cobblestone built 24 homes on 13 lots. Two lots housed a detached single-family home. Nine lots held two detached homes, while the two remaining plots of ground held homes attached at their garages.

The double-detached homes were packed into the small city lots and had square footages between 642 and 1,126. Priced in the $500,000s, "people found it hard to resist getting two homes for the price of one," says Susy McBride, director of marketing for Cobblestone Homes.

The land purchase for this project was originally an afterthought, tacked onto another purchase, also in Santa Rosa, but worked out well; all of the homes sold, one owner per lot, within 35 days of the project's May 2004 opening.

Factors that helped win approval include the company's local reputation and relationships, its experience with secondary guest-cottage building and the site's location in a redevelopment zone city planners were eager to see completed.