Developed in cooperation with the state Commissioners of Land Office, Village Verde is a 480-acre real estate project in northwest OKC near Piedmont. The development has implemented several eco-friendly amenities, and all of its buildings are required to meet stringent energy efficiency standards.
For its newest sub-division, Village Verde is adding 62 electric vehicle-ready houses.
Many houses, even brand new ones, don’t come equipped to provide the juice needed for electric vehicle charging. Homeowners who want to install a charging port often have to upgrade their electrical panels and their service drops. If a whole neighborhood needed that extra power, Parker said there are special infrastructure considerations.
“It's one thing, one thing to do one house,” Parker said. “But when you do 62 houses, that's a big deal. All of a sudden I need bigger wire.”
So Village Verde reached out to OG&E to discuss building EV-ready infrastructure for the neighborhood. According to Parker, theirs was OG&E’s first request of this nature.
“They're now pulling in wire and installing transformers and getting this ready,” he said. “It looks like in the next 30 to 60 days the builders will be starting to build their houses.”
Parker said Village Verde plans to build all future houses with EV-charging capabilities. The mixed-use development has other green considerations as well: streets designed so houses are well-oriented for solar panels and recreational fishing ponds designed to recharge groundwater stores.
In the future, he said Village Verde hopes to start a food garden and sell its produce in a neighborhood farmer’s market.
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