Traditional Neighborhood Development

At first glance, Kentlands, Md. looks like a snapshot of an old-fashioned city or small town neighborhood: a mix of houses, schools, shops and cafes, all within an easy stroll.

Just like the old days, some of those neighbors even reside above the store.

But this town is not an old established area. Twenty years ago, none of it was here.

Kentlands is a town built from scratch, according to town architect Mike Watkins.

"The main street's the heart of the community. It's where neighbors hang out," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver. "Kentlands is 352 acres, 2200 residential units, about a third multi-family, a third townhouses and a third singles in rough numbers."

There are rental apartments, too, and lots of shared green space. The governing principal is simple.

"Many of us prefer walking to driving, so it was deliberately designed as a place as a counterpoint to that — to offer an alternative to driving absolutely everywhere," Watkins said.

In fact, Kentlands is just one example of a movement that's been dubbed "new urbanism."

"Well, essentially the suburbs have crashed," said Andres Duany, who with his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, is leading the new urban movement. "The promise of suburban living was not fulfilled. You don't get nature, you get a little lawn. You don't get the freedom to drive everywhere, you get traffic congestion."

Duany and Plater-Zyberk run the firm, DPZ, which is based in Miami.

"We take these things that developers that are doing usually badly in a sprawling way, and we assemble them into towns," Duany said.

They have designed several hundred new communities all over the world. The most famous is Florida's Seaside — a town so seemingly perfect, it was the backdrop for "The Truman Show," a movie about a man who lived his life on the set of a TV show. But Seaside is a real accomplishment. Time magazine called it "the most astounding design achievement of its era."

"I think they're part of a utopian dream which has long been part of life in the United States," Plater-Zyberk said.

Americans have been pursuing perfection for generations. In the 18th and 19th centuries there were many religious and spiritual utopian communities, including the Amana Colonies in Iowa and Shaker villages in New York and elsewhere. Even the first suburbs were part of the search for utopia, an attempt to flee the grit of some big cities.

"The center of the city was getting almost unlivable," architect Witold Rbycyznski said. "You have factories and manufacturing, all this dirty stuff next to people's houses. And so the wealthiest people started moving out to the edges."

Rbycyznski is a professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of a new book about development called "The Last Harvest."

"It's what some farmers call when they sell their land to a developer," he said. "It's the last harvest — which, of course, is a harvest of green."

Rbycyznski says that if farms must give way to development, at least towns like Seaside and Kentlands are welcome improvements over typical tract housing.

"It's shown that Americans are becoming more sophisticated," he said. "We appreciate design. Whether it's, you know, old-fashioned or not, it's still design and it's something that's changed in this country."

And it's not just design that seems to attract residents to places like Kentlands. It's also the sense of community.

"It's real. People take care of each other's dogs and kids," resident Michelle Harris said. "I mean, it's amazing."

As satisfied as people who choose to live in new urban communities say they are, there's just one little problem: they are a distinct minority.

"The typical American family — husband, wife, 2 or 3 kids — a single family detached house, two car garage, preferably two full bathrooms at least, is the preference. And a lot of people like to have a third of an acre yard," said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Homebuilders Association.

Howard says that today, nearly 2/3 of Americans still aspire to the traditional suburban home. But as baby boomers continue to age, he predicts attitudes will change.

"They wanna be close to things," he said. "They don't want the hassle of taking care of a single family house. Interestingly enough, though, we're starting to see a little bit of a difference in the 20-somethings, the next generation of home buyers. They're less interested in a big house, more interested in a lot of the bells and whistles: the technology that goes into a home. And they're willing to sacrifice size for those kind of things."

But there's been plenty of criticism of places like Kentlands or Seaside. Some people say, 'Come on, these are fake towns, and this isn't what life is all about.'

"I don't see how people can say that [about] places where so many people live real lives," Duany said. "You know, real lives with real jobs and real kids and real problems and real successes. The arrogance of people saying they're not real places, you know, it's just astounding."

So should we look forward to a time when many of us live tightly packed in new, urban communities like this one? Don't bet on it. Utopia or not, Rybcynski says Americans will never give up their freedom to sprawl.

"I'm not worried about that, 'cause it's not all gonna be like that," he said. "We're much too unruly. You know, there are gonna be strip malls. And there are gonna be big box stores. And all of these things are not just going to go way. And it's going to be a mixture of these things as it's always been."

In other words, it's just what the American dream has always promised: The chance to pursue your own idea of Utopia.

You may view this story also at the CBS Sunday Morning News website at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/sunday/main2829485.shtml