Located just outside Austin, Plum Creek in Kyle, Tex. is this region’s first traditional neighborhood development—a community of 8,700 residential units, several hundred acres of green space, over 600 acres of commercial, employment, and mixed-use property, a 70-acre town center, and a commuter rail station, all built on the principles of “new urbanism.”
View full stats and project history at Terrain.org, which has an absorbing file of such “UnSprawl Case Studies” (and other great literary and visual content on place, both natural and built) viewable in the dropdown in the top right corner. Plum Creek may not look like paradise to everyone, but it’s an example of the way new developments can keep up with the times and the needs of a changing social and energy landscape.
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Delay And Deny Posted 8:41 am
16 Feb 2009
This is a beautiful development, and anyone should be happy to live here -- in fact, I don't know why you besmirch it by saying "urbanism" when it looks to me far more like small town Ohio or williamsburg virgina updated for 2009.
Best of all
prices ranging from attached townhomes starting the mid-$90,000s to...
$90,000 for a brand new townhome?!
People will be saying "Goodbye, Seattle!" and the same to all the other overpriced coastal "urbs"...
"If you ask me, I think it's just another ball of hydrogen!" -- Captain Fraddock, S1E11
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noracharles Posted 12:27 am
17 Feb 2009
I'm very happy to see it in practice again and hope more and more cities and town continue to do this.
If you are interested in this topic of New Urbanism, check out "Geography of Nowhere" by James Kunstler and "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream" by Andres Duany et al. Extremely interesting books.
My only concern is that these New Urban communities, like Seaside, Florida tend to be taken over by the wealthy and drive home prices up and end up excluding middle and lower income residents because they can't afford it. If these new town plans are to work, they need to have provisions for lower income housing/apartment units so that everyone can enjoy the community, not just the wealthy.
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biodiversivist Posted 1:00 am
17 Feb 2009
Seattle's discovery park has a railroad adjacent to it. This creates a long green belt that extends clear into the forested mountains. A cougar was found in the park a few years after I moved to Seattle. I thought that was pretty interesting. Two years ago a black bear used this green belt to get a few miles from my house in the heart of Seattle.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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thelandscape Posted 3:12 am
17 Feb 2009
christy
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biodiversivist Posted 4:24 am
17 Feb 2009
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Erik Hoffner Posted 5:09 am
17 Feb 2009
But wild things also do tend to find their way in to spaces like this, with or without planning. Birds in flight, and the seeds and critters they carry on their feet and in their guts, being one of the most important and accessible vectors.
Erik
The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more
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