It Takes a Village

May 31, 2006 — -- If you think that to live in a community where you have everything at your fingertips you have to spend a fortune, think again, because now developers have geared their planned communities not only to the super wealthy but also to those who perhaps can spend as little as $200,000 for a home. They've even targeted people in the market only for a rental.

"Urban sprawl is out. Those that have suffered under urban sprawl want to move to vibrant places. They're exiting their gated communities," said Steve Maun, president of Leyland Alliance and executive board member of the National Town Builders Association. "Now we're building towns and cities just like those built prior to World War II. This type of sustainable living by design can be changed over time as needs change."

Maun said the sprawl that has spread around so many cities, where residents have to get in their cars to do anything, is not sustainable.

In some places you can leave your gated communities and embrace urban living for a mere $200,000. Maun said he's upset that the notion of town center has been misconstrued and connected to luxury living at a high price.

"This is not about building a new town center. It's about taking old infrastructure and bringing it back with a broad spectrum of living that has a variety of price points," he said.

In these new developments, called dense living communities, you might start by first renting an apartment, then buying an apartment, then a town house and finally a larger detached house.

One of the foremost new urban developers, Andres Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., a Miami architecture and planning firm, has created 150 planned communities, some hitting that broad spectrum of price points. Duany agreed that the concept of town centers being only for the wealthy is wrong. The reality of dense-style living is in fact the opposite; it fosters diversity in one community by having affordable price points and encouraging people to get in by renting, he said.

"We have an obsession with ownership that the rest of the world does not have," Duany said.

Low Price Point

Out of Duany's 150 projects in development, some have affordable price points to rent and own. But Duany says if you must own you can still buy an affordable home, one of his 1,100 square-foot homes (one bedroom,1½ baths) at New Town St. Charles in St. Louis goes for $200,000. For that same price, in Redding, Calif., you can get something slightly larger -- a two-bedroom -- with the same kind of community feel.

Many of Duany's developments that have multiple starting prices are also in walking distance to a church, hotel, school, museum, library, medical office building and day care center.

"People are looking for more integration and less isolation. I see it all over the country. People want to buy dinner, drop off a video rental and pick up a prescription all on foot," said Maun, who likes to refer to his concept as "work force housing," the same style of living as New York City has. "People want to be part of an active city."

From Vacant to Bustling

Rhode Island developer Buff Chace has embraced the phenomenon of multiuse living and also brought back to life some historic and vacant buildings. Chace has given Old Westminster Street -- the Fifth Avenue of Providence -- a rebirth by converting historic vacant buildings into an urban living environment at affordable rents of $800 a month. The buildings he has converted into rentals will soon be available to purchase.

Chace converted a dense historic district that had always been a single-use commercial district into a multiuse neighborhood. Providence has mobilized urban living with affordable housing; that's one reason developers nationwide gather there for their annual meeting to discuss how to continue creating these affordable, multiuse communities.

Renaissance Moving Across Country

The revitalization of dense living, rather than sprawl living, is a movement that Duany says is growing because of people's increased environmental awareness and their desire to walk, not drive.

Rebuilding town infrastructures to create convenient, community-style living is happening throughout the country: in Miami; Los Angeles; Dallas; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Kansas City; Columbus, Ohio; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Norfolk, Va. Maun predicts that in the next decade the movement will hit New England.

"We're going to see a migration of people into what have been the most economically challenged cities," he said.

Convenience living has also taken hold overseas, particularly throughout England. Hank Dittmar, chief executive of Prince's Foundation, is constructing 25 projects. "The vision of the master plans is to bring back walking, mixed communities that respect the traditions of the places they were originally planned for."

With people's commute times increasing, building a pedestrian-friendly community is key. As far as John Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, is concerned, the best way to foster walking communities is to tear down interstates. Norquist said the interstates in Seattle, Buffalo, N.Y., and Louisville, Ky., are coming down to create more of a walking landscape, similar to those found in San Francisco, Milwaukee and New York City.

En Vogue Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Many urban developers say this is not merely a trend but a sustainable lifestyle that is here to stay.

"The urban scene is back," said Norquist. "People are recognizing they want to embrace urbanism, they want to socialize when they shop, not have to go to these big shopping malls -- malls are in trouble."

Many developers and city planners say the best way to keep up this new urban momentum is to offer varying price points with a low entry point for a starter home. Norquist said that's the whole beauty of dense-style living; it organically lets people from different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds to come together: "New urbanism just includes affordable housing without labeling it 'mixed housing.'"

Maun echoed that sentiment, saying that developers don't want affordable housing to stand out like it has in previous years, "looking ultramodern and blocky." Most new urban developers agree it's all about community integration and having that coffee shop around the corner available to the majority of the population.