Lot Lines – the Official Blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects
Project Highlight: Roundabout RV & Water Resort
At Outdoor Design Group, we’re thrilled to spotlight our latest project, the Roundabout RV & Water Resort, nestled in the picturesque rolling hills of Oxford, Mississippi. This unique resort promises a blend of natural beauty, modern amenities, and thoughtful design, catering to a wide array of visitors, from Ole Miss fans to vacationing families and local residents.
Embracing Nature, Overcoming Challenges
Designing the Roundabout RV Resort presented a distinctive set of challenges. Our primary goal was to provide safe amenities, level RV pads and ADA-accessible routes all while preserving the site’s natural beauty. The rolling hills, mature trees, creeks, and ponds of North Mississippi’s landscape required innovative solutions to maintain the scenic charm while ensuring functionality and accessibility. Our team at Outdoor Design Group worked meticulously to balance these elements, creating a harmonious environment that highlights the area’s natural splendor.
A Haven for All
The Roundabout RV Resort is more than just a place to park your RV; it’s a destination tailored to a diverse audience. Whether you’re a visitor, a student or faculty member of Ole Miss, a family on vacation, or a local resident looking for a staycation, the resort offers something for everyone. For those without an RV, the on-site luxury cottages provide a cozy and comfortable alternative, allowing everyone to enjoy the resort’s amenities and natural beauty.
Highlights of the Resort
The Roundabout RV Resort boasts an impressive array of amenities designed to enhance your stay:
- Recreational Activities: Enjoy fishing ponds, playgrounds, a fitness center, business center, shuffleboard, pickleball and basketball courts, a dog park, picnic areas, walking trails, a food truck plaza, and a yoga/zen pad overlooking the pond.
- Water Park Extravaganza: Dive into fun with a splash pad, lazy river, hot tubs, family pool, and a 21+ pool complete with a swim-up bar and sun deck.
- Community Spaces: Gather with friends and family at the sandy beach, community pavilions, storm shelters, bonfire areas, and more.
- Convenience and Comfort: Golf cart rentals ensure easy mobility around the resort, while the various pavilions and shelters provide perfect spots for gatherings and events.
The Design Journey
The design process for the Roundabout RV Resort began with a comprehensive site visit to fully understand the property’s unique characteristics and potential. Our team conducted several versions of concept sketches, exploring various layouts until we identified the most ideal plan. This iterative process involved close collaboration with engineers and water attraction specialists, allowing us to refine the design further. Through this collaborative effort, we developed a final site plan that seamlessly integrates the resort’s amenities with the natural landscape, ensuring an exceptional experience for all visitors.
A Collaborative Effort
The success of the Roundabout RV Resort is a testament to the collaborative efforts of several key players. We partnered with the Co-Founders Drs. Alison & Andrew Ross and Chris & Jay Hughes, Mersmann Consulting Group, Williams Engineering Consultants, and Synery Aqua Tech to bring this vision to life. Each team brought their expertise and dedication, contributing to the project’s overall excellence.
Community Excitement and Economic Impact
The local community has shown overwhelming support and excitement for the Roundabout RV Resort. Senator Nicole Boyd highlighted the project’s significance, stating, “This is a super exciting project. It is innovative. There is a huge market need for people that are travelling across the state… This will be a great recreational spot. It has great interstate access and will be able to have people from all over the south use Oxford as a landing spot. It also solves a real need in our community when people come in to the university for ball games and weekends at the university. They’ll have a first-class RV spot to be able to go and have the wonderful recreation amenities right here close to town. I think we’ve all been working at the state level to make sure that people understand that this is a true economic development project for the region. The tourism this will bring in will be absolutely incredible. It’s like nothing else that we have really in this whole region.” (watch the full interview here)
Project Statistics
- Resort Size: 85 acres
- Project Cost: $22 million
- Estimated Completion: Spring 2025
The Roundabout RV Resort represents a new chapter for Oxford, Mississippi, offering a premier recreational destination that promises to bring joy, relaxation, and economic growth to the region. We at Outdoor Design Group are proud to have played a part in this transformative project and look forward to welcoming visitors to experience all it has to offer.
Follow along with the construction of this project by visiting www.roundaboutoxford.com
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.
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When the Grass Grows Taller
Outdoor Design Group is based in Arvada, Colorado – this blog concerns the Great Plains and Western United States. A previous blog post – wonderfully written by Julie O’Brien – traced the origins of the “green carpet”. The ubiquitous American lawn. It’s important to note that the green carpet exists in multiple forms. It’s a literal thing and a cultural construct. Most Americans associate homes with green lawns regardless of the prevailing environmental conditions. The lower 48 of the USA receives between 5” – 120” annual precipitation. Established Kentucky Bluegrass (KBG) requires about 26” of precipitation during the growing season. Our collective perception of the green carpet must incorporate prevailing environmental conditions!
Within the confines of this blog, the term ‘native grass’ refers to grass species found on the Great Plains prior to western settlement; to understand the applicability of native grass, refer to the map below. The eastern half of the United States receives 30 – 70” per year; the western half gets 5-30” (with exceptions in the Pacific NW). Denver sits on the dry half with 15” annual precipitation. Landscape is all about place, and our place is pretty dry. Our native flora have adapted to the prevailing conditions, yet the same cannot be said for the green carpet!
Source: USA Precipitation Map
Sown native grass shines in low-traffic applications. Once established, it needs no supplemental water or fertilizer. It is not soft and fluffy. It needs full sun and doesn’t tolerate heavy foot traffic. If planted in your front yard, there is a high probability that at least one neighbor will vehemently dislike. Yet it’s a solid solution for covering low-use space. After all, you need to do something with any given patch of earth – so weeds don’t run amok. Semi-arid climates such as ours render large-scale KBG nonsensical. It requires excessive irrigation, fertilizer and herbicides, while contributing zero ecological value. Native grass isn’t a silver-bullet; it’s a tool in the toolbox that’s applicable to many areas.
There are myriad factors to consider with native grass. First off, it doesn’t have to be native! Secondly, many species are sold by container. While many viable grass species are endemic to the Great Plains, other well-adapted varieties come from elsewhere in the world. Either way, native grass species have deep roots, grow relatively tall and are not available as rolled sod. They are typically sown by seed, and in some cases installed by plug. It’s difficult to establish and there’s an ongoing maintenance requirement. Ample moisture is required during the first season and an underground sprinkler system is recommended. Temporary (above ground) irrigation can also be used. Weed management is critical. Certain weeds (especially bindweed) must be addressed BEFORE installation! Ongoing weed management will be required! Native grass is not easy. If you’re willing and able, you’ll be rewarded.
There are many cool & warm season grasses to choose from – that differ in terms of height, texture & cold-tolerance. On the shorter side, buffalograss and blue grama are proven options. Taller options include little bluestem, big bluestem, switchgrass, western wheatgrass, sideoats grama & tufted hairgrass – in addition to many more. You might consider several varieties of water-thrifty turf as an alternative to native grass. Options such as Dog Tuff, RTF Tall Fescue & Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass.
This is not an installation guide. Contact your local agricultural extension for more information. Seed suppliers such as Pawnee Buttes and Arkansas Valley Seed are also great resources. Most western residential and commercial landscapes have a place for KBG – the key is scale; not overdoing it. Native grass isn’t for everyone, nor is it perfect for every landscape – yet it’s severely underutilized!
Written by Matthew Whiteman
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.
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Is this the Beginning of the End for Lawns in the Arid West?
With recent news headlines (https://abcnews.go.com/US/happen-colorado-river-system-recover-historic-drought/story?id=98475953) warning of the extreme drought conditions hitting the western U.S. and the region that makes up the Colorado River basin, cutting water use has become top of mind for many citizens and leaders in Colorado and beyond. One city in Colorado has approved a plan to cut water use in the face of this historic drought, and this plan is raising some eyebrows and generating its own headlines due to its potential impacts.
In the summer of 2022, the city council for Aurora (Colorado’s third largest city), approved restrictions on high water turf lawns for all new construction. Originally proposed by Aurora mayor Mike Coffman, all ten members of the city council voted to approve the new ordinance which limits the amount of turf lawns in new developments and golf courses. (https://www.denverpost.com/2022/08/23/aurora-limits-grass-lawns-golf-courses-water-usage/)
The ordinance prohibits water guzzling turf lawns in common areas, medians, curbside landscape and front yards. In back yards, lawns must be equal to or smaller than 45% of the area, or 500 square feet, whichever is smaller. However, an exception was included to allow front yard turf lawns for residences whose backyards are too small to fit the 45% or 500 square feet threshold.
Perhaps most importantly, the ordinance restricts turf from being used merely for decorative purposes in common areas unless it is for use in “active or programmed recreation areas.” The skinny strips of lawn often found in older commercial developments which are inefficiently irrigated as water over-sprays wastefully on to nearby walks, streets and parking lots, will hopefully become a relic of the past.
Considering that the typical high-water lawn needs 25″ of water annually to look good and green, and Aurora (as well as most of the front-range urban corridor of Colorado) only receives 15″ of natural precipitation all year, reducing or eliminating non-active or un-programmed turf lawns is a very easy way to reduce urban and suburban water use.
This is why another recent headline grabbing story regarding reducing turf lawns was welcome news. In June 2022, the State of Colorado passed a bipartisan-sponsored measure that will encourage property owners across the state to ditch their water-wasting turf lawns (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1151).
The legislation is intended to use state funds ($2 million) to financially incentivize the voluntary replacement of irrigated turf with water-wise landscaping. The bill, HB22-1151, requires the Colorado water conservation board to develop a statewide program that would distribute funds to various “local governments, certain districts, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations” for lawn replacement programs. Those funds could then be used to pay property owners to reduce their landscape irrigation by transitioning away from high water turf lawns, towards more climate appropriate landscape treatments. The funds could also go towards expanding some existing programs that already pay property owners to replace water-thirsty lawns, about $1 to $3 per square foot of removed sod. Most of these rebates are only offered in cities in Colorado and not unincorporated areas. One goal of this legislation is to broaden this type of program to other areas in the state.
While $1 to $3 per square foot of removed sod may seem generous, there are reports of some landowners in California getting lawn replacement rebates up to $6/sf. (https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/19/us/california-drought-lawns/index.html). Interestingly, some of the rebate programs in California also require installation of rain barrels as well as turf lawn replacement. That is an intriguing idea for rebate offering entities in Colorado to consider, especially since rain barrels only became officially legal just a few years ago.
Researchers at Colorado State University estimate that landscapes account for at about 55% of the total annual water use for a typical single family home in Colorado.
And most of this goes towards lawn irrigation. In the city of Denver for example, it’s estimated that nearly 25% of the city-wide entire annual water consumption is sprayed on high-water turf lawns. (https://denverite.com/2019/05/06/denverites-can-use-120-million-gallons-a-day-to-water-their-lawns/) Considering that lawns are only irrigated about half of the year or less in Colorado, that is a lot of water that could easily be saved if more lawns were changed into climate appropriate landscape treatments.
Let’s hope that the recent passage of Aurora’s lawn restriction as well as HB22-1151 helps usher in a more water conserving and water conscious future in Colorado and other states in our drought prone region. This won’t translate into a complete disappearance of high-water turf lawns. However, for the sake of our rivers, aquifers and reservoirs, it means that these water-hogging green carpets must be used wisely and judiciously in the designed landscapes of the future.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.