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January 05, 2009
Southern Village field trip
I've developed a fascination with the new neighborhoods that are springing up that have a little village of shops and a green attached to fairly dense, uniform housing. We've spent a lot of time walking around Port Warwick in Newport News; on Sunday I proposed a field trip to Southern Village, about 30 minutes south of us, just outside of Chapel Hill.
I'm not sure what these neighborhoods are called; some seem to call them Master Planned Communities, and others just call them Mixed Use developments. Neither term quite seems to fit. A Master Planned Community seems to be more on the scale of a town or small city; Mixed Use mainly refers to zoning in urban areas. These places are not really urban.
Southern Village is older than Port Warwick and seems to have been executed better. There's actually a grocery store (although I noted no pharmacy). There's a movie theater, doctor's offices and at least one gym. The eateries are more like what you'd see in a college town - cheaper, slice-of-pizza places. Port Warwick has nothing as practical as a gym or a grocery store; mainly upscale clothing stores for women and sit-down restaurants.
Both have predictable, smooth sidewalks that make walking easy - not like my old neighborhood that has heaved pavement waiting to trip you, or surprise you with a deep puddle, or that ends abruptly, dumping you out on the street in mid-stride. This is why I like walking in these places so much. They also feel extremely safe.
Jason asked me if I'd want to live in Southern Village. Even if we could afford a single family house (we can't - the prices are astronomical) my answer would be no. It's too far away from Durham and just didn't feel right. "These are not my people," he said, after reviewing the streets almost literally lined with Priuses. I had to agree.
Nevertheless, it's an excellent place to take the dog. The walking is vigorous but not dangerous, and Reese is the center of attention while camped out at the entry to the grocery store.
The other day while walking around Oyster Point - just across the street from Port Warwick, and sort of a commercial sister to PW - we started imagining the planned community we'd want to live in. Take a block of old buildings in downtown Durham and rehab them. Get the businesses we like on the ground floor - a good coffee shop, used book store, record store, etc. A rock club needs to go in there, some place where movies could also be shown. Get A/V Geeks to come in periodically. Take the 503 South idea, make it safe and pleasant, add residential on top of or around it. Make fast internet an included utility for the residential and blanket it with free wireless in the business areas. Require the residents to participate in a CSA program - rather than an HOA.
Anyway, until such a place magicks itself into existing, I suppose we will continue to explore the Durham sprawl for a new place to live, one day.
Posted by lisa at January 05, 2009 06:00 PM
Comments
It sounds like you've done all the planning already; roll it out! I think one of the tricky parts is getting the businesses sustainable with just neighborhood traffic. Getting residents in the habit of visiting regularly can be tough for a small business; lots of people tend to run to big box places while their running other errands and they neglect the neighborhood place.
We've had a couple of small coffee shops within walking distance, but because residents tend to stop at Starblah on the way home from work, they ended up closing.
Posted by: Steph Mineart on January 5, 2009 07:37 PM
the advantage to doing it in downtown durham - which is beginning a revitalization but isn't really there yet - is that you'd get foot traffic naturally.
however, the retail spaces would need to be cheap to keep the sort of hole-in-the-wall places we were thinking of. in fact we theorized that the residential might subsidize the retail somewhat.
all just spitballin' though.
Posted by: lisa on January 6, 2009 12:56 AM
I think it may be a PUD--Planned Urban Development.
Posted by: Lisa B on January 6, 2009 08:40 AM
Or New Urbanist Development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism
Posted by: Elizabeth on January 11, 2009 08:11 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.