Botetourt & Bedford Go Traditional
The 'traditional' style neighborhood development of sidewalks and streetlights has gained some ground. County supervisors in Bedford unanimously backed a new 'planned community' zoning district, and a developer is waiting in the wings to use it, says the Lynchburg News & Advance.
Developer George Aznavorian is planning a project with a residential area dubbed "Mayberry Hills" and a commercial sector called “Downtown Moneta at Smith Mountain Lake.” Aznavorian told the paper the new zoning district "promotes a pedestrian-friendly community."
And planners in Botetourt County just to the west have OK'd a project that would be the county's first traditional neighborhood development. The Daleville Town Center - a mix of houses and up to 400,000 square feet of commercial space - is "the right development in the right place at the right time," one planning commissioner told the Roanoke Times. "It will make Daleville a destination."
posted by Anonymous @ 5:58 AM
4 comments
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4 Comments:
Sprawl apologists please take note: No one is cramming this zoning code down anybody else's throat. No one is "forcing" anyone to live in neo-traditional communities. The zoning revolution creates a development option where none had existed before -- providing a wider range of choice for developers and home buyers alike. Consumer preferences will prevail. Now the challenge is to make sure these communities get built in locations that can be efficiently served by the regional transportation network, rather than in locations that will stress the network.
I agree completely. Developers should be allowed to build what they think will sell, and as you say, the problem is locating them where they make sense, although I'm not sure we know how to assess that.
Maybe someone will want to put up an equestrian friendly community - a few small homes within walking distance of a horse barn, training rings, and miles of trails. What do you think their chances are?
"New Urbanism represents a school of planning and design critical of urban sprawl and dedicated to the establishment of walkable, mixed-use, traditionally designed neighborhoods. For some, mainly the architects, it is simply a design question. For others, who include planners, New Urbanism means the regulatory regime of Smart Growth, as it reflects more about the purposes of the communities being created and what is needed to serve those purposes."
For more on the relationship of New Ubanism and coservative thought/minimal government see
http://www.claremont.org/localliberty/archives/003288.html
The equestian community you mentioned is already a reality in Bedford. Check out the link for Serene Creek Run.
http://www.realestatepointer.com/jpgs/scr.jpg
No connection to it, I just brive by it every day.
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