PROJECT TOUR | Scotland Hills

Transcript:  So, this is Scotland Hills.

This is our premiere subdivision in Rapid City. This is one of the most fun subdivisions I’ve ever had the chance to be a part of.

We were able to take 120 acres that was hidden right inside of Rapid City on these beautifully forested slopes just next to the Hospital right away from Highway 16 and just off of 5th Street.

What we had here was a series of ridges that extended up and through this area. Heavily treed forests, heavily treed gulleys, amazing wildlife -deer, fox, all sorts of things, turkeys all over the place.

So, what we wanted to do was we wanted to preserve the nature that we had up here. We wanted to preserve the character of this property, and so the best way that we thought to do that was through a large lot residential subdivision.

So, what we did was we identified our area, we looked at our surrounding utilities and what we had and we determined that on this 120 acres, really, we only had room for 1 street with a few lots off of it. So, our lot to area ratio is very low on this subdivision, mostly because if we wanted to really take full advantage of it, we’d be digging through from valley to valley, we’d be clear cutting trees to build these new roads, and we just didn’t feel like that was right for this property.

So, what we did, is we worked with the City, we worked with the Fire Department, we analyzed the water system to determine that we did have adequate water pressure through here. Even to the point where we helped Public Works secure a new water line easement that extends all the way up to Highway 16 and to our next pressure zones. We dedicated a full acre for a future pressure reducing building that will help to eventually create more loops for this entire area to improve the fire protection for this entire region.

The Fire Department also came out and they took a look at all of these trees and this was an area that even before we had purchased this property, they had it identified as one of the major fire risks inside of Rapid City. And, so what they wanted to do right off the bat was see what we could do to work together as a team to reduce that risk.

Number 1, we brought water up, which was the most important thing. Now, we have active fire hydrants that we can use to put out anything that happens.

We then set up a series of covenants to even further protect the houses. Each house has got to have fire retardant materials on the exterior, and each one of them is constructed with its own internal sprinkler system.

And, then we went about and we created a series of specifications where we thinned the bottom, we cut all of the limbs off the bottom 6 foot of these trees and then we thinned them out to a 30 foot spacing which is what you see here beside us.

So, we’ve done all of that just to make this area as safe and to preserve as much character as we can.

The other thing is, is that we wanted to be ultimately careful with is understanding the soil stability and slopes within this area and within Rapid City. So, what we did is we came out here, we looked at the grades that we had, and we determined that we didn’t want to have any homes built on fill.

So, rather than trying to level out a street by cutting and filling, we decided that we needed to do cut only, that way every single home would be built on solid, stable, undisturbed material.

The lots themselves, each one’s about an acre wide. The minimum sizes are about 100 foot of frontage. Everybody owns back to the bottom of the canyon to protect their view, to protect their downhill area so that you don’t have people walking through.

And then, of course, the views. Each home was set in on an exact spot to allow the home next to it and the home beside it on the other side to have its own series of specific views and specific places to build on.

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