High-density is the future of land-use planning

Land use planning has undergone an exciting renaissance over the last two decades and we’re slowly beginning to see the benefit of that change here in Wilmington. Unfortunately, land use planning as a whole tends to be somewhat of a snoozer topic full of dorky real estate terms and eyeball-glazing concept names like New Urbanism, Smart Growth or, the always popular acronym, TND (Traditional Neighborhood Development).  This is regrettable due to the semi-permanent nature of concrete, bricks and steel. Once we turn a land use concept into reality and put it in the ground, it is going to be there for a while and it affects everyone in the community.

Let’s see what we can do to make land use planning and its high octane cousin, New Urbanism, interesting and relevant by talking about how it actually works in the real world. New Urbanism is basically about combining the higher-density typical to city development, before the 1950’s suburban model became the rage, with modern technology to save trees, and improve traffic, storm water retention and livability. 

The fact that more density is better for the environment runs counter to our mid-1900’s suburban world view and is sometimes difficult for the public to accept. Buildings mean rooftops and driveways – the dreaded impervious surface. Squeeze as much of that hard construction as possible onto a smaller piece of land and you have more room for meaningful open spaces- good for several reasons.  The first of which is that you can use your storm water to irrigate those spaces, reducing the run-off that goes into our creeks. An article published in the October 2007 edition of Stormwater, The Journal for Surface Water Quality Professionals, (no kidding, it’s real) cites an EPA study completed in Grand Rapids, Mich., which showed 5 units per acre provides a significant reduction in run-off than one unit per acre.

Another major advantage is the ability to design open space in areas containing your large, mature trees, minimizing the depressing sound of a live oak getting the ax. The third benefit is that you have larger public spaces where children play and adults gather to decompress.  Living a little more outside is good for everyone.

The next area of concern is managing traffic. The New Urbanism concept places homes within walking distance of shopping, which encourages people to walk or ride a bike rather than travel by car.  The benefits here are obvious but the planning and development community has always questioned whether pedestrian transport will work in non-traditional urban areas in the South. A real-life test case occurred during the development of Autumn Hall. As the developer, we paid additional money to the City of Wilmington in order to make the multi-use path on Eastwood more appealing than the standard city issue.  We had our answer when pedestrians and cyclists popped up overnight.

Pedestrians are great, but another benefit is the presence of commercial properties juxtaposed with residential, which allows residents to shop and work without driving onto the main arterial roadways.  This is known as internal capture and is exactly opposite of the segregation of land uses that dominated development from the 1950’s through the 1990’s.  Now, mixing land uses is correctly seen as a better way to reduce vehicular congestion, keep infrastructure costs down and reduce air pollution by minimizing the length and frequency of car trips necessary to live, work and play. 

The sum of these parts and all of the technical details that we don’t have the space to discuss in this column adds up to a better quality of life for those either living in or visiting a New Urban development.  Autumn Hall, for example, has more than 50 acres of parks and open space, which is 25 percent of the parcel.  No single family home is more than 400 feet from a park. We use water from our storm water pond to irrigate our common areas. Commercial space will be in walking distance of residential areas through attractive corridors. All of this is possible, both through a design and economic sense because we had the ability to put high density in some areas and have open spaces in others. 

That is the New Urbanism concept in a very small, real life nutshell.  The last question to be answered is the most important—does it work?  The market is the final arbiter on that and, despite a pretty serious problem with the real estate market and the economy during the time we’ve been on the market, Autumn Hall has sold more lots in our price range than all of New Hanover County combined.  There is your answer.

Raiford Trask is Vice President of Autumn Hall.  He was appointed this summer by Gov. Perdue to sit on the North Carolina Economic Development Board.