What's So Great About New Urbanism?

Check out this fun YouTube video below on TNDs and new urbanism. Note the opening scene and the water color shown to the left. It is BRYTAN!! Michael Morrissey is the artist and he drew it for the Brytan Charrette in 2000. The video clip is under 3 minutes and worth watching to get a quick overview on why communities like Brytan are not only convenient and friendly but also sustainable.

Houses with Value

The Parade of Homes is a great opportunity to see a variety of homes and features that can add value, comfort or fun to a house. This year, there was quite a variety of price points to review and I am really pleased at how Brytan measured up. I think the three greatest features of Brytan, besides the truly green aspect, are the great gathering spots in each home, the craftsman detail and the fiber optic network. I will start with the fiber network first because I think that is sort of a sleeper. It is not discussed very much because most homes don't have a true connection. But if you think of the impact on the internet and the speed at which communication is occurring, the one thing that we all know is that homes need to have this capability or be very "dated" in a short time frame. Why buy a home today that is not going to handle the conveniences of tomorrow? The other feature that I appreciate in the Brytan homes is the trim around the windows and the finish detail. EG Gonzalez built a wonderfully detailed home to feature in this year's Parade. Everything was high quality from the way the kitchen cabinet and drawer doors closed to the flooring in the garage. Talk about value for your money! Finally, there is what I like to call the great gathering spots in a home. Brytan homes have porches where you can actually have a chair, swing or rocker...not just a concrete slab that is barely large enough to set a potted plant. There is also grilling areas or enclosed patio areas that are more "private" than the front porches. Then there are the many benches in the parks and close to sit, relax and catch up with a friend. Go ahead, relax...you don't have to spend your afternoon mowing the yard or trimming the hedges!

Brytan does not feature the least expensive homes...that has never been one of the objectives of the community. Rather the objectives are to provide a great deal of value, regardless of the square footage and to provide a variety of price points in a variety of homes. If you are buying a home today, buy one that will retain and increase in value. In Brytan, you will get not only the home you can afford but the home that will truly improve your life and lifestyle!

The Give and Take of a Charrette

After sending out numerous invitations and publicizing the meeting times, the charrette began. We were extremely pleased with the turn-out. New urbanism was a new concept to many people in this area. Haile Village Center is a nice example of traditional neighborhood design for a village, but Brytan is larger and it to be designed as a town. The difference involves providing more of the daily needs within the town boundaries. The charrette opened with a presentation by Duany where he explained many of the concepts of new urbanism. He explained the importance of pulling the buildings up to the streets, of creating vistas at the end of the streets, of on-street parking to provide a barrier between the pedestrians on the sidewalk and the vehicles on the street. Traffic calming is an important element in creating a truly walkable community. It is interesting to note that people are in favor of slowing down the traffic in a general sense but they don’t like to be slowed down in their daily commute.

The individual meetings took place with discussions of building placement and the role of neighborhood parks. Other topics included architecture and the importance of having homes that have “eyes on the street”; so many homes are designed today where once a person enters the home, he has no connection to the neighborhood until he leaves the next day. Wide front porches and windows help create a connection that serves an important role in establishing community. However, once the connection is made to the neighborhood, you have to still find a way to protect the private realm for the homeowner. Elevating the house so that windows are not at eye-level help provide privacy from the street. Also, the role of interior courtyards helps promote an outdoor private realm that homeowners can enjoy without the hassles or expense of large yards. With the increasing importance of water conservation, smaller yards are an important asset to the home. People need to be able to enjoy the outdoors so the location of recreational elements was an important feature of the overall design of the community.

Opinions were shared and designs were modified. Each day, the design would be “posted” on boards that people could stop by, review and comment. We were surprised at the number of people that truly followed this process and took the time to try and understand why a building was faced in a particular way. The design of Brytan was to be open and inviting to its neighbors, not a fenced or walled off subdivision that is frequently built. It was interesting to see how some of the neighbors wanted to be able to visit Brytan and interact with the community but others wanted to have Brytan separated and completely unconnected from their land. Through the give-and-take of the charrette process, a compromise of sorts was reached. Brytan has been designed so that future connections could be established if those neighboring groups so decided.

After a week of intensive meetings and design work, two plans emerged from the charrette. Duany wanted to tweak both plans for a bit and then allow a determination as to which one best met the overall objectives.

Remember, at this time, the regulations of our County did not allow mixing uses vertically nor were TNDs encouraged.

Confessions of a TND Founder

First of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Alison Cox and I along with David Miller and Sara Summerfield represent the Founder of Brytan. The Founder is Brice Development and the three people primarily responsible for the development will be providing some insight into why we developed this project the way that we did and share some of the experiences that we have had along the way.

Let's start with a bit of history. The site, located along Archer Road, has long been the target of large box retailers and other commercial enterprises. As a company, we had developed many traditional neighborhoods with homes on large lots but this location seemed to need something different. The site is in an area defined as an Activity Center and we had always been told that when it was developed, the road would need to "re-connect" with 75th Street on the south side of Archer Road. Many presentations and ideas were presented but none seemed to be right.

One day in 1998, a planner asked David and I to attend a presentation and conference featuring Andres Duany of DPZ & Company, a renowned town planner. We went to Reston, Virginia and toured Kentlands (a large TND/new urbanist project). At the conference we heard from other founders, lenders, engineers and architects. We came back thinking that the idea of a new urbanist project may be just the answer for the development of this property. Duany was familiar with Haile Village Center and we invited him to visit the site the next time he was in the area.

Duany visited Gainesville and walked the site. Like any site, it had challenges but overall he thought the location in an Activity Center along a major arterial road was a real plus. Duany laid out several of the positives and negatives and indicated he would be willing to send us a proposal.

My thoughts at this point were mixed. It seemed like we had the right development for the location but the current rules and regulations did not allow for the mixing of uses, especially vertically; residential above commercial was a no-no. Should we invest in designing a project that may never be allowed or should we just allow the big box retailer to develop the site as the rules currently allowed? We finally decided to get several proposals from reputable and noted firms. We realized that this was a large project, the largest we had ever undertaken and that it would require extensive assistance from experts. We interviewed several different firms and it was an impressive experience to talk with these people. Each firm had certain strengths but the one common thread was their enthusiasm for this type of development.

Then we got the proposals. Wow. This was far different than anything we had ever seen. We really had to think through what we would be getting for the dollars spent because it was a lot of dollars for design work. Also, we still did not have the rules to allow the development so this was an investment based on hopes for change. Once we recovered from the initial shock, we tried to analyze each proposal. David and I started the adventure with Duany and I think we developed a rapport that made him the person that we wanted to work with. If you know Duany, you know that he will give you his most honest assessment and, quite frankly, we needed that feedback. We looked at the pros-- a great design in the right location and encouraging lifestyle choices that were gaining in popularity (e.g., walkability)-- and at the cons-- no regulations permitting such design and a huge front end investment. Finally, we looked at the local governing body. The commission at the time was certainly promoting TND type developments. So, we decided to make the investment.

Next: The process begins...