PARK AT THE HEART
Sacramento's Evergreen Commons shines with
communal spirit thanks to its vital village green

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Dave Weinstein

You won't see Evergreen Commons park on the typical map of Sacramento. That's not surprising. It is a small park, only two and one-half acres, and not open to the public. But in the neighborhood of Evergreen Commons, it's the center of the world.

About 45 of the neighborhood's 115 homes open directly onto the park, a freeform swatch of lawn, playground, pools, picnic areas, a volleyball court, and beech, locust, alder, sycamore, and redwood trees. The park is heavily used throughout the year, treated as a communal backyard, and owned and maintained by the neighbors.

It brings a touch of nature to an otherwise dense suburban neighborhood. "Listen," Steve Haynes instructs a visitor as they stand by the gate that opens from his backyard onto the common. "You just hear the birds and the wind rustling through the trees."

Professionals cut the grass and provide standard maintenance. But the park's spiritual master is longtime neighborhood resident Dick Pryor, who walks its quarter-mile path every day, knows every sprinkler head and rhododendron, and supervises the annual work day, when residents are required to dig, chop, pull, hoe, and repair -- or pay $40 for the privilege of opting out.

"Talk about community-building," says Larry Vrieling, who's lived in Evergreen Commons since it was built. "That day does it. We're out planting and pruning and building and painting, and we always have a barbecue in the afternoon."

Perhaps that's why the neighborhood, which was developed by the Streng Bros. in 1971 in unincorporated Arden Arcade, about half an hour from downtown Sacramento, retains such a sense of community -- and why neighbors believe the neighborhood will survive a current controversy over architectural protections.

Evergreen Commons has always been considered a relatively affordable neighborhood. Before the recent downtown, single-family homes were selling in the $400,000s and half-plexes in the mid-$200,000s. Values have fallen -- though it's hard to say how much, because none have sold recently.

Residents have always appreciated saving money -- including on their homeowner association fees. Fees are $480 a year, even less if you pay at the start of January. They are among the lowest in the area -- Vrieling says they are the lowest in the area -- because neighbors do much of the work themselves, including serving as their own property manager.

The result, neighbors say, is a boost in community spirit, as people get to know each other. Nothing provides more social contact than the annual workday. "We get to meet our neighbors," says Suzanne Krale.

Evergreen Commons certainly felt like a real community on one recent work day. Jim Sparks was re-shingling the cabana roof. Julie Jensen was removing agapanthus that had fallen victim to an invasion of bamboo. Her son Anthony was digging a hole for a tree. "Your depth is good," his mother advised him. "Now you have to clean it up."

Pryor, meanwhile, was slowly bicycling the park, keeping an eye on progress. "It's a little bit of a job," he said, "because you're trying to keep 40 people busy."

"He just tells us what to do," Krale said, "and we do it."

"A lot of this stuff doesn't have to get done," said Pryor, a retired Caltrans landscape architect who's lived in Evergreen Commons since 1977 and initiated the work day. "We can get by without it. But it looks a hell of a lot better when it gets done."

Residents are supposed to work four hours a day. Some work longer -- and some work less. "I don't get too excited if they only put in three," Pryor confessed.

Many neighbors say they moved to Evergreen Commons because of the park, designed by the Sacramento landscape architect Mitch Tanner. The neighborhood was laid out by Neil Waters.

Baxter and Linda Culver, the second family to arrive back in 1971, appreciated the park for providing their two children with a gated playground protected from the world outside. "It added a lot of value to our property," Baxter said.

While most modern tract homes have backyards walled off for privacy, at Evergreen Commons, homes that border to the park open onto it through rustic wood-slat fences. The Strengs' architect, Carter Sparks, "designed a sort-of see-through fence, one that kept the dogs in and the little children, but the space flowed," says Jim Streng, who developed the neighborhood with his brother Bill. "It opened it up visually."

Like many modern neighborhoods, Evergreen Commons is set in a relatively open, park-like setting. The concept, also seen in the work of such modernists as Gregory Ain in his Mar Vista neighborhood in Los Angeles, is tied to the modern movement's socially conscious roots -- a desire to increase interaction between neighbors and boost a sense of community.

The Culvers' home, like most Strengs, is mostly glass as it faces the backyard and the commons. But the Culvers have never used drapes. "You have to put the lights off if you want to run around naked," says Baxter, a retired lobbyist.

Evergreen Commons was the Strengs' first use of half-plexes, Jim says, and one of unincorporated Sacramento's first planned unit developments, which allowed greater flexibility on land use.

Besides work day, three annual social events bring neighbors together. There's the Easter egg hunt, and the July 4 celebration that features DJs or a band. "Easy rock," says Nick Konovaloff, a longtime resident. "Nothing threatening to those who are on the verge of cardiac arrest."

Then there's 'Larry's ice cream social,' which Vrieling puts on to promote the neighborhood crime watch. Besides ice cream, the event features presentations by sheriff's deputies. Crime is low, Vrieling says, but cars and home break-ins occur. "I can't get through to people to lock their windows," he says.

With all Evergreen Commons has got going for it, it's not surprising that people stay. Many original buyers remain, as do some younger people who were raised in the neighborhood and became second-generation owners. The neighborhood remains popular with people who work for the state, teachers, doctors, folks in advertising, and the stray architect or two.

"Most of us who bought here thought that this would be a first home and we'd be buying somewhere else," Konvaloff says of early buyers who have stayed. "Onward and upward, I guess. But most of us found ourselves pretty comfortable. We surprised ourselves."

Like many buyers, the Culvers convinced the Strengs to modify the plan for their home. It never took much convincing. They ended up with a slightly larger home, with a kitchen that opens to the backyard through glass doors and a window pass-through. They also added several feet to the backyard overhang, which provides a wonderfully shady area for dining.

But what most attracted them to Streng homes was the atrium, a Streng trademark. The interior courtyard, skylighted and open to the rest of the living area, has rectangular patches of earth that Linda Culver has turned into a lively garden. Linda also enjoys views through the atrium skylight. "When it's full, I lie on the floor and watch the moon," she says.

Their neighbor Annette Williams, a retired flight attendant, has turned the home she shares with her husband and an Alexandra parrot into an art object, replicating the freeform, curved lines of the planting areas of her atrium in her oval and round furnishings. Her atrium includes a fish pool. "I worked for a pond company for a while," she explains, "and in lieu of wages they came and put in the pond."

On the north side of the park are the Streng half-plexes. Although they are smaller than their neighbors' homes to the south, cost less, and are packed together more closely, folks say it's not the other side of the tracks. "For us, this is a big house," says Steven Haynes, who recently moved into a half-plex with James Geisdorf. "For me, it's luxurious."

Haynes, who was collecting modern furnishings before he collected his first modern house, has become a Carter Sparks fan. "The half-plexes are very livable and well thought-out. No wasted space, obviously. It's modernism packed into a little box."

Some people do move from half-plexes to the neighborhood's single-family homes, often seeking more room. Tim and Melissa Beard, who hope to start a family, made the switch three years ago, bidding on three homes before securing one. "We loved the neighborhood," Melissa says.

Despite one second-story addition -- and with gabled dormers, no less -- the neighborhood retains most of its architectural integrity. There are low-gabled houses, some with steeper gables, and some with flat roofs with central A-frames. The homes were designed by the Strengs' regular architect, Sparks, a well-known modernist who also designed many custom homes throughout the Sacramento valley.

Many houses have original globe lighting fixtures, and many have the original Japanese-style chandeliers that Sparks also provided for his custom homes, both inside and out.

Evergreen Commons also has Sparks' touches that are a bit more unusual, included slatted wooden boxes that conceal fluorescent tubes above several entries. The floors of several of his carports are decorated by beds of embedded river rock. As in most Streng neighborhood, original garage doors are relatively uncommon.

Over the years, enforcement of the architectural rules has waxed and waned, neighbors say. Recently, however, tempers have flared over architectural controls, with one side urging the association to better maintain architectural integrity and the other arguing for individual rights.

"It's been one big fight since February," says Michael Ann Rainey, a former association architectural committee chair.

It all started with a driveway fence, which the board approved although many neighbors say it impinges on the neighborhood's original, open look. "What is a fence and what is a wall?" Culver asks, rhetorically.

The result has been name-calling, association board battles, and resignations -- trouble in paradise.

"There comes a point where you do own your own property," says Shirley Dodge, a former association president who sits on the individual rights side of the fence, "and provided you keep it up nicely, people can't impose their own opinions on what you do."

Culver, who wants to see more attentive regulation than Dodge prefers, says: "This has been bubbling along for a long time." He cites the second-story addition that was built several years ago, and a brick gate.

Before she became architectural chair, Rainey herself, along with her late husband, violated the rules by installing a brick gate topped by gilt lanterns between their house and the commons. "We had a lot of trouble when we did the gate," Rainey says. "This gate right here is contradictory to everything else, even though it is beautiful."

But despite the turmoil and occasional faux-pas, fans of the Streng look hope -- and expect -- that the neighborhood will retain its architectural beauty, Vrieling and Culver say.

And Jennifer Petersen, who served as the social chairwoman when she was on the board, believes the tempest will calm down because everyone loves their neighborhood -- and the neighborhood has such a tradition of friendship. "I'm looking forward to a resurgence of community pride," she says, "to bring people together again. I really think we're going to work it out."

What's preserved the neighborhood over the years, Rainey says, is that so many original residents have stayed in their homes, which they have loved. Even Rainey, whose once-modern interior has been 'traditionalized' with the addition of crown molding and crystal chandeliers, worked hard to keep her house looking pure Streng from the outside when she pushed out a wall to enlarge the dining room.

Newcomers too are increasingly getting into the spirit. Several are conscientiously restoring their homes' architecture. Tim and Melissa Beard, whose kitchen cabinets are original but countertops are not, may go back to the original Formica.

Steve Haynes, who serves on the association board and favors architectural controls, says originality is what closed the deal for him. "We wouldn't have bought the house if it didn't have the original kitchen," he says. "We looked at Strengs throughout Sacramento, and we couldn't find one that hadn't been badly redone. We wanted the Carter Sparks original concept."

Their kitchen counters are Formica and will stay that way. "Granite would look too fancy for this house," Haynes says.

Nor does he plan to redo the ceiling. "People see the acoustical ceiling and say, 'Oh! Cottage cheese ceiling,'" he says. "Actually, at night when the lamps are on, it adds some texture and shadow to the ceiling, which is very interesting to me."

Photos: David Toerge

• Evergreen Commons, in the unincorporated community of Arden Arcade, near American River College, occupies several quiet streets south of Winding Way, including Edison Way, Terra Vista Way, Cool Court, and Sesame Street.

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