Buying New Urbanism: A Study of New Urban Characteristics that Residents Most Value (original) (raw)
Related papers
Describing Diversity of New Urban Developments in Austin, Texas
This applied research project describes the diversity of new urban developments in Austin, Texas. The project begins with an overview of the history, causes and negative effects of suburban sprawl. The idea of new urbanism is then presented as the antithesis of suburban sprawl. Additionally, the literature surrounding issues in diversity relating to new urbanism is explored. Diversity literature is categorized by built diversity, demographic diversity, and economic diversity. These are the descriptive categories used to describe the diversity of new urban developments. The methodology used is a combination of field analysis and document analysis. Field analysis was primarily used in collecting data for the built environment while document analysis was primarily used for collecting data regarding demographics and economy of the new urban developments. The developments selected were the Mueller development, The Domain and The Triangle; all of which are self-proclaimed new urban developments. Finally, findings reveal a description of the diversity of each development. The three developments vary in diversity across the three descriptive categories. Overall, the Mueller development proved most successful in achieving diversity.
Evaluating a new urbanist neighborhood
2011
New Urbanist neighborhoods aim to improve sustainability by reducing automobile use, increasing walking and cycling, increasing the diversity of land uses and people, and increasing social capital, through strengthened personal and civic bonds. With more New Urbanist communities being constructed, it is now more feasible and necessary to evaluate their success. Much of the existing research uses older, traditional neighborhoods as a proxy for New Urbanism. This research compares a New Urbanist development with two conventional subdivisions and fi nds that some of the objectives are being fulfi lled, in both direct and indirect ways. While New Urbanist residents are walking more, they may not be driving less as a direct result of the New Urbanist design features. Demographic factors appear to explain much of the diff erences in overall driving.
Land Use Policy, 2017
New Communities are again being promoted as an alternative to sprawling urban growth. This paper uses the results of a unique survey of the real estate development communities in the U.S. and U.K. to examine the likelihood that future New Communities will provide the array of amenities necessary to create developments that provide a true alternative to sprawl. Based on an analysis of this data we conclude that while developers do envision New Communities as more amenity rich than much of the suburban master-planned communities of the last few decades, they are nonetheless still likely to produce developments that have an insufficient array of amenities to make future New Communities a strong alternative to sprawl.
Valuing New Urbanism: The Case of Kentlands
Real Estate Economics, 1999
The impact of new urbanism on single-family home prices is assessed. Specifically, Duany and Plater-Zyberk's (1994) traditional neighborhood development of Kentlands and surrounding conventional subdivisions are used to estimate the premium, if any, that single-family homeowners are willing to pay to reside in a community with new urbanist features. Using data on 2,061 single-family home transactions and several hedonic price models, the empirical evidence reveals that consumers are willing to pay a premium to locate in Kentlands. New urbanism, sometimes referred to as traditional neighborhood development (TND), 1 has captured the imagination of urban architects, planners and designers over the past few years. TND has drawn considerable media attention 2 and has evoked substantial academic discussion. 3 Promoters of new urbanism believe that it is the cure for ills caused by the suburban sprawl or conventional approach to development. By encouraging people to drive less and interact more, TNDs reduce traffic congestion, mitigate air pollution and restore a sense of community. Critics of new urbanism argue that this movement is too concerned with appearances and
A typology of New Urbanism neighborhoods
This paper describes a framework for understanding the diversity of New Urbanism (NU) in practice in the United States. The framework is based on a nationally representative survey of NU developers that inventories characteristics of NU projects’ built environments across categories of urban design, land use, street configuration, and size. Using cluster analysis, the paper resolves the diversity of NU in practice into three types: Mainstream Urbanism, Dense Urbanism, and Hybrid Urbanism. The paper elaborates on each type, including geographic and temporal aspects of constituent projects. It also considers the ways in which the framework contributes to scholarly understanding of NU and advances the discussion of NU in practice.
The New Urbanism (NU) planning movement aspires to create socially diverse neighborhoods. It is unclear, however, whether this movement lives up to its aspirations in practice. In an effort to systematically examine this aspect of the movement, this paper analyzes age, family type, income, and race data of 70 NU neighborhoods in the United States. The paper uses a diversity index to compare the NU neighborhoods with control sites. Findings show that NU neighborhoods have lower racial diversity, but may have higher income diversity. Consideration of variations within the way NU is implemented reveals that the low racial diversity is associated with a single approach, but higher income diversity is associated with all variants. This paper argues that NU generates places that are more socially diverse than what is described in the literature and uses two case studies to explore the ways in which diversity is produced and its relation to gentrification.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2004
Within many metropolitan areas of the United States, there is great diversity in the type and location of housing available to homebuyers. Of this diversity, new single-family homes built at the urban fringe have become the subject of much criticism in planning circles because of the potential impacts such development can have on agricultural, forest, and other lands valued for their natural resource qualities. To better understand the underlying decisions upon which these prevailing patterns of development are based, we asked new homebuyers about the importance of home, lot, neighborhood, and community features in their recent decision to purchase a home at the urban fringe. Two samples of residents living in fringe areas of the Detroit metropolitan area of southeast Michigan were studied to examine homebuying decision making. A general population mail survey was used to study individuals who purchased a single-family home within the past 7 years, and to contrast them with less recent homebuyers. Focus groups were also used to sample a smaller, more selected group of individuals who purchased homes in open space subdivisions within the same fringe area. Using the general population sample, demographic, geographic, and neighborhood preference variables were analyzed along with homebuying choice factors to identify segments of the population who found natural and openness neighborhood features important in their home purchase decisions. Focus groups were used to further explore how homeowners thought about and valued natural, open characteristics of the landscape. Together, these studies showed that preferences for natural and openness features were not universally important across homeowners in urban fringe areas. While respondents with high household incomes and those living in rural townships tended to rate natural and openness features higher than other income and geographic groups, as a preference factor in homebuying decisions, natural and openness features were generally overshadowed by considerations for neighborhood and housing design, schools, and access. Nor did natural and openness preferences necessarily relate to sprawl-minimizing behaviors, as findings showed that these features tended to be rated as more important by homeowners who also preferred large lot, auto-oriented neighborhoods. While focus group participants living in open space neighborhoods placed great importance on naturalness and openness in their purchase decision, these new homebuyers are a fairly small fraction of all new homebuyers in the metropolitan area. Together, these findings indicate that land use policies in urban fringe areas that attempt to preserve natural and rural features might need further consumer support in order to sustain or expand these housing market segments that aim to preserve the original character of
Production of Alternative Development In American Suburbs: Two Case Studies
Planning Practice and Research
"Based on research ihat indicates a significant unmet demand for alternatives to conventional low-density, land-use-segregated, automobile oriented development. This study examines the interaction of developers and planners in the production of alternative development in North American suburbs. 'Alternative development" is one which possesses one or more of the following characteristics: higher than usual densities in a suburban context, a mix of land uses in close proximity, a variety of housing types in the same development, pedestrian- and transit-oriented amenities, a range of different transportation modes, and easy accessibility to major regional destinations. This incorporates concepts and practices such as New Urbanism. Transit Villages, Eco- Villages, mixed-use developments and higher density apartment complexes. We selected case studies of alternative development projects in two states, California and Michigan. In California, we selected one successful project (Rio Vista West in San Diego), and an unsuccessful one (Whisman Station in Mountain View). In Michigan, we selected one successful project (West Village in Dearborn), and an unsuccessful one {Pembrooke Park in West Bloomfield), A successful project was one in which a private developer completed an unconventional suburban development. An unsuccessful project was one in which such developments were proposed but significantly modified as pan of the planning process, in a fashion that reduced considerably their alternative character. Due to limitations of space, this report on our research focuses only on the two California case studies. These cases illustrate some of the key developer-planner dynamics in alternative development."
A Statistical Meta-analysis of the Design Components of New Urbanism on Housing Prices
The principles of New Urbanism such as increased density, mixed land uses, and street connectivity are often recommended in response to the typical conditions of suburban developments. Much current empirical research has begun to test whether these principles can increase property values. The findings of these studies have, however, been quite inconsistent. This research attempts to quantitatively synthesize these conflicting findings through a statistical meta-analysis. This study finds that a lower density, decreased street connectivity, and a closer proximity to a transit stop can contribute to increased housing premiums, while mixed land uses are not shown to always do so.