The developer/builder, Leonard Besinger, asserts it will be the first single-family subdivision in the country in which permeable pavement is installed for all the hardscapes.

The hardscape top layer is porous concrete bricks. Water flows through the 5-by-9-inch bricks and then passes through several layers of filtration, including aggregate bedding and permeable geotextile fiber. The water then passes through perforated pipes and seeps into the subsoil and to the aquifer.

The Wildwood hardscape should be finished by mid November.
Besinger notes the system eliminates the need for almost all swales alongside the roadways, thus preserving more land and trees.

Besinger says permeable paving for most developments is cost prohibitive, as it costs at least three times as much as asphalt paving. Here, however, where the average home price is $2.5 million, the developer feels people should get the best.

Besinger explains that permeable pavement holds up as well as, or better than asphalt because of the stone subbase and infiltration bed. On the maintenance side, sweeping or vacuuming of debris is required to keep the pavement holes unobstructed.