Traditional Neighborhood Development – A Lifestyle for the Times

The composition of the American household has changed dramatically over the years and will continue to morph well into this century.  Fueled by an aging Baby-Boomer-dominated population, trends suggest that more households will consist of smaller families, singles and unrelated people. The impact on primary and secondary housing has already begun to emerge.  A diversity of smaller home designs within large mixed-use master-planned communities in urban, suburban and rural locations is becoming a popular lifestyle choice. These self-sufficient communities offer residents the opportunity to live, work, and play without having to get into a car, and are the perfect venue for Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), a clustered, pedestrian-friendly community concept. The TND lifestyle tends to attract people who value social interaction, cultural and economic diversity, pedestrian activities, housing variety, and environmentally responsible design.  The clustering of diverse housing types to create neighborhoods within a single community brings people of many economic levels together.  This is achieved through a broad array of housing options at various price levels.  Nevertheless, housing values in the TND environment tend to exhibit as much as a 15% premium over conventional subdivision housing values in the same marketplace.

Daniel Island

A paradigm TND example is Daniel Island in Charleston, SC.  This 4,000-acre private golf community boasts abundant natural amenities including 23 miles of shoreline, 400 acres of parks and open space, and more than 12 miles of trails woven throughout the community. The community comprises a variety of traditional neighborhoods and lifestyle enhancements that include two championship golf courses designed by Tom Fazio and Rees Jones, a comprehensive tennis facility, and a centrally-located downtown village offering retail shops, restaurants, a supermarket, medical offices, banks, churches and schools.  And if straying off-island is your desire, the vibrant and historic city of Charleston is at your immediate disposal.  One of the key tenets of the TND concept is a focus on the economic diversity of its residents. Daniel Island exemplifies this criterion featuring a variety of housing options with prices ranging from the $100,000s to more than $1 million.  Daniels Island is a 2007 recipient of the Urban Land Institute’s prestigious “Awards for Excellence” and has been cited as one of “America’s 100 Best Master-Planned Communities” by Where to Retire magazine.