morganparis’s Recent Comments

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  Developing the exurbs

  I used to experience a similar lack of ideas about what to do in the exurbs, and then I sublet a unit in a cohousing community called Cobb Hill on an organic farm, 20 minutes drive from Hanover, NH, home of Dartmouth College. They have 23 families living on 2 to 3 acres of a 275 acre property that includes an organic farm (on about 10 acres), pasture and sustainably managed forest. All of this is owned in common.

  
  I think Flint's comment is about existing and proposed big-lot exurban subdivisions, outweighing village-type cohousing development in the the US by, oh, I'd guess about 100,000 to 1.  No usable shared land, no neighborhood community, no onsite employment, no onsite community resources of any substantive kind, no chance in hell of any kind of public transportation.  Utterly dependent on a twenty to forty minute car trip for, well, just about everything.  What do we do with these projects when they go out of style?  There are real adaptive upgrade options for the first ring suburbs that can make them part of a sustainable future.  It's hard to say that of the kind of exurban development (not co-housing style) that is gobbling so much of our land, energy and infrastructure resources right now.  As a design professional trying to act responsibly I'd love to know of a positive vision of the future of these developments.On An interview with smart-growth expert and author Anthony Flint posted 3 years, 3 months ago 9 Responses