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"You want to be able to absorb as much storm water on site as possible," said Brabec, who now teaches at Utah State University. "That was really a guiding force in what we were doing."

The developers included many of the concepts in the final design.

Many roads will be more narrow than standard width. Walking paths and parking spaces will be gravel rather than paved. The community will encourage people to leave their cars parked once they arrive and use walking trails, bicycles and golf carts, which require less parking area. Houses will be clustered in three areas along the harbor, the river and creekside, with a village center, performing arts pavilion and post office creating a sense of community.

Preserving shoreline

Developers originally planned to put a marina on a creek and allow private boat docks -- the standard approach at the coast. But given the amount of waterfront -- 14 miles -- state environmental regulators worried that hundreds of boat docks and bulkheads would alter the natural shoreline.

Bulkheads prevent waterfront land from eroding but destroy what is in front: the shallow salt marsh that provides vital nurseries for young fish and shrimp.

Instead, the developers decided to carve out an interior yacht basin and to cut a channel to a creek. Creating the 28-acre basin with 400 boat slips involved moving more than 500,000 cubic yards of dirt -- enough to fill a line of 50,000 dump trucks, which would stretch roughly from Raleigh to Asheville.

But it also transformed interior land into 56 harborside lots, raising each lot's value from $100,000 to $400,000 each, Mitchell said. At those prices, the $14 million basin would pay for itself, so they dropped the idea of putting a marina on a creek.

"The cumulative effects of 258 private docks would have significant impacts on the water quality," Mitchell said. "Once we understood the water quality issues, we were convinced it was the right thing to do."

Of nearly 400 acres of wetlands on the tract, the development has disturbed less than an acre, Mitchell said.

Taxpayers also made an investment in protecting the water.

At Miller's suggestion, the developers agreed to sell a conservation easement on 238 acres to prevent development around the headwaters of Gum Thicket Creek, which flows directly into the Neuse River.

To buy development rights, the Coastal Federation and Neuse River Foundation obtained a $1.25 million grant from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, a state agency. No houses will be built on more than 118 acres around the headwaters, and just 21 houses will be built on large lots on another 120 acres near the creek.

"The creek was identified as the most environmentally sensitive part of the property," said Bill Holman, executive director of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

Miller, of the Coastal Federation, said River Dunes will be worth watching as it fills out over the next decade.

"Whether we anticipated the issues, we'll know in a few years," Miller said. "The indicator will be whether those adjacent waters remain open and productive for shellfishing."

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