Posts Tagged ‘sprawl’

New Urbanism in Rural America

July 21st, 2009

 
Many people believe that for a town to grow, it needs a new development on the edge of town.  People moving to town need a place to build, so why not?  A contractor or developer buys land on the edge of town and divides it into cul-de-sacs and dead-end streets.  The developments often eat up valuable farmland, and become a suburban island far from where people work and play.  New urbanism, or smart growth, is helping these cities and towns develop better.

New urbanism believes in land conservation, mixed use development, and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.  These new developments are built in one of two places: infilling an existing but declining neighborhood, or on the edge of town.  Infilling prevents sprawl, saves resources by using existing infrastructure, and helps bring back life in old neighborhoods. 

When infilling is not an option, new developments using smart growth principles are modeled after older neighborhoods in the community or city and placed on the edge of town.  These lots are set up on a traditional grid pattern with narrower streets to slow traffic, with narrow and deep lots.  This promotes a safe neighborhood for children to play in, pedestrians to stroll, and others the ability to bike to work.  These developments model themselves off existing streets and neighborhoods to help connect with the town.  This helps the development create a sense of self, as well as a feeling of belonging to the city and not an attached parasite. 

New urbanism also believes in mixed use development.  Good new urbanism developments actually have a higher population density than average neighborhoods, connect residents around community plazas and playgrounds, and provide essential shopping (think groceries, hardware, florist, etc.) as well as offices within minutes.  They encourage biking and walking; they build apartments and single-family homes in the same neighborhood, and invest in community spaces.  All of these aspects contribute to a community’s social capital.

So, why do we not see more new urbanism in our communities?  I think one reason is the fact that they take more planning and effort.  I think we can all agree that a larger up-front investment is hard for any community to swallow, whether it has 500 or 100,000 residents.  But, if people start asking for these types of neighborhoods, I think they can become more commonplace and start to outnumber their suburban counterparts. 

Which would you rather live in, and why?  Is there a reason you would prefer one over the other?  This is something I want to study more and would like to hear some input.

For more information on this topic and what our neighbor to the east is doing to implement these new neighborhoods, check out the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund’s Building Better Neighborhoods website.

 

Photo Credit: Matt on Flickr

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Posted in Community Development, Housing, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (0)