New Urbanism taking root in Arkansas towns
Posted on Monday, October 2, 2006
When a developer unveiled plans for a subsidized apartment complex on 19 acres of woods near some of Maumelle's most coveted subdivisions, the proposal set off an uproar that led voters to oust the city's board of directors and adopt a mayor / council form of government.
Six years later, those woods west of South Odom Boulevard have been cleared for another development that seems foreign to the carefully planned city - brightly colored houses with front porches, tiny yards and airy balconies.
Standing out amid acres of suburban-style houses, the Village of New Bedford is one of a growing number of attempts to re-create the neighborhoods before the interstate age, when people spent time outside and got to know each other.
Builders are working on 14 houses, some of them nearly finished, and plan to build 99 more over the next few years. Nearly half will be "zero lot line"houses, spaced just a few feet apart, and others could be "town homes,"with four units per building.
The New Bedford name comes from the Massachusetts city - one of the developers grew up there - that provided the setting for parts of Moby Dick. Street names will follow that theme. The first two are Melville Drive and Nantucket Loop.
"We wanted it to look like Mayberry, Norman Rockwell, Andy Griffith's house,"said Clint Aguiar, a builder and partner in the development.
The tribute to the past is an outgrowth of New Urbanism, a planning philosophy that promotes pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods as an alternative to urban sprawl.
After a slow start in the 1990 s, the movement is beginning to gain a foothold in Arkansas, with urban villages planned in Conway, Fayetteville and North Little Rock.
These "traditional neighborhood developments"will combine houses and apartments with stores, restaurants and parks within easy walking distance. Other developments, such as the one in Maumelle, have only houses but borrow from the New Urbanism style.
"No one would ever say a subdivision qualifies as New Urbanism,"said Stephen Filmanowicz, a spokesman for the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago nonprofit that promotes the philosophy.
"Some developers say, 'Well, we want to mix and match, '"Filmanowicz said. "We as New Urbanists promote the benefits of designing towns and urban places, but we realize that developers will use some of those ideas but not all of them."
Those ideas found an unlikely home in Maumelle, conceived in the 1960 s as one of 13 "New Towns"across America funded by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Now, the burgeoning city of 15, 000 is known for tidy brick houses, walking trails and wooden privacy fences.
In contrast, the vinyl-sided houses at the Village of New Bedford rise in cheery yellows, greens and even a deep red. Ceiling fans hang above large porches or balconies. The development has landscaped yards, a pond awaiting a fountain and alleys that provide access to rear garages.
While relieved to see houses, rather than apartments, moving in, some neighbors are puzzled.
"You have to either think New Orleans or think New England,"said Rebekah Hollaway, whose backyard in nearby Maumelle Valley Estates looks out on the new subdivision. It's too early to tell how it will work, she said.
"It's not the same style of houses that are around here,"she said," but this isn't everybody's style of house."OLD-TIME NEIGHBORHOODS
In a survey three years ago, the "New Urban News,"an Ithaca, N. Y., newsletter, counted 24 traditional neighborhoods in place across the country, with 341 more under construction.
One of the first, Seaside, Fla., was built on the Gulf Coast in the 1980 s and provided the setting for the movie The Truman Show. The Walt Disney Co. founded its own New Urbanist town, Celebration, near Orlando in 1994.
Arkansas' biggest so far is Har-Ber Meadows, a 600-house community founded in Springdale by Bernice Jones, the widow of Jones Truck Line founder Harvey Jones, on the property of her old family farm. The neighborhood has a swimming pool, 55 acres of parks, 35 acres of lakes and offices, a hospice and a nursing home. A Harp's grocery store opened on the development's southern edge earlier this year, and a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant is scheduled to open in December.
Bernice Jones, who died in 2003, started work on the project in 1995 and invested more than $ 20 million in the infrastructure. Har-Ber Meadows was slow to take off at first, in part because of its location across from a cow pasture on Springdale's western border. But a public elementary school that opened on the north end of the neighborhood in 2000 helped draw people in, as did a nearby high school and middle school that opened last year.
A central feature is Founders Park, which has tall trees, fountains and grassy areas where people play football or croquet. Facing into the park, across streets on either side, are the front porches of narrow, two-story houses spaced about 10 feet apart. The alleys behind them provide access to rear-facing garages.
Har-Ber Meadows' other homes run from small cottages with patios to larger, more suburban-style houses overlooking one of seven artificial lakes. Nearly all the houses are brick, giving the neighborhood a uniform look.
The sidewalks and closely spaced houses make it an attractive place for the trick-or-treaters who flood the neighborhood each October. Children camp in the park on Father's Day and decorate their bicycles for a Fourth of July parade. In June, residents unload their clutter with a neighborhoodwide garage sale.
At Firefly Catch Avenue and Wades Coach Drive, Julia Taylor meets every morning with a group of mothers who walk their children to the elementary school. She and her husband, Clark, moved to the neighborhood from Fort Riley, Kan., in June, after he was assigned to take charge of the University of Arkansas' Army ROTC program. Accustomed to close-knit, military communities, they found a similar environment at Har-Ber Meadows, where they often chat on a front porch while their daughters play with other children. On a recent evening, the Taylors were outside, throwing a football to a group of children across the street. "This is typical here,"Clark Taylor said. "It just happens every night at this time."
URBAN VILLAGES At Park West, a 140-acre development planned in Fayetteville - on Arkansas 112, west of Interstate 540 - most of the shops will be in the middle of the development, with offices, hotel rooms or apartments above them. Parking will be on the street, in garages or in lots tucked behind buildings, said Tracy Hoskins, the project's developer.
"The way a traditional town or community grew was from the center out,"said Jim Ramsey, an architect with Hoskins' company.
Park West is among at least a half-dozen developments planned for the city, most of them on the west side. On Wedington Drive, Rupple Row advertises itself as "a neighborhood with a passion for community"and features tall, narrow houses named after 19 th-century English literary figures. About 20 of the 1, 800-square foot houses have been built so far, priced at $ 225, 000 each.
Planned in Conway are the Village at Hendrix, on a 100-acre plot next to the college, and The Village, on 400 acres southwest of the city.
In North Little Rock, developers Lisa Ferrell, the former state legislator, and Jim Jackson are considering a project on 40 acres near River Road.
Earlier thrusts at New Urbanism have been modest.
Greg House, who usually focuses on downtown redevelopment projects, built a subdivision in Fayetteville of 50 homes, with landscaped courtyards, porches and large balconies, meant to resemble those of the coastal south. The last house was completed earlier this year.
In Little Rock, Brodie Creek, on Bowman Road south of Kanis Road, was once planned as an urban village with more than 800 homes, as well as stores and offices. Fewer than 100 of the oldstyle houses were built, however, and the rest of the property is being developed as Woodlands Edge, a subdivision of more conventional brick homes.
MODERN CONVENIENCES A few miles south, in a corner of a gated community near the Otter Creek area on Stagecoach Road, architect Randy Ripley built The Arbors at Stagecoach Village, a cluster of 20 brightly colored houses meant to resemble the bungalows of the city's Hillcrest and Heights neighborhoods. The final houses, which sold for $ 175, 000 to $ 200, 000, were finished last month. Instead of facing a street, more than half of the homes look out on a landscaped courtyard with tall oak trees and a winding gravel path. An alley circles behind them, allowing access to garages in the rear. All of the houses have porches and some have arbors on the side. "It's an old Hillcrest community or an old'50 s or'40 s community that's come alive again,"said Earnie Matheson, sipping wine under the arbor of his taupe and cream house on a recent afternoon.
Matheson, who bought the house a year ago for $ 185, 000 with his companion, Tony Chiaro, said he didn't want the hassle and expense of renovating a house in the real Hillcrest. Instead, he worked with Ripley to design the house he wanted - with Tiffany chandeliers and pendants, bronze door knobs and seven feet of space between the living room and dining room windows for his Italian credenza.
While meant to look old, the house came with modern features, such as a cultured marble whirlpool, walk-in closets and a central vacuum system.
For Matheson and his neighbors, the tempo of life has changed.
For vacations," instead of going to Colorado or wherever, we often just stay at home and enjoy being at home,"Matheson said.
Kathy Henbest, who lives across the courtyard, in a rosecolored house surrounded by a white picket fence, made stainedglass address signs for herself and Matheson. The neighbors often have dinner together or swap dishes.
Matheson "makes killer strawberry dumplings,"Henbest's husband, David, said. In return," I've got what I call my world's best party mix that I make and bring over 12 quarts at a time."NO COOKIE-CUTTER HOUSES
In Maumelle, Aguiar and his partners, father Bob Aguiar and builder Gary Washam, hope to create a similar atmosphere at the Village of New Bedford, where prices range from $ 200, 000 to $ 270, 000.
The neighborhood's first phase will have 50 houses, 20 of which will be "zero lot line"homes as close as five feet away from the house next door, with a bit more room on the other side for a courtyard. Instead of backyards, those houses will have rear garages facing an alley.
Around the edge will be 18 "patio homes"spaced at least 10 feet apart, with garages and driveways on the side. The other 12 houses will be attached "town homes,"with four units per building. None of those have been built yet, and if no one is interested in them, they could be replaced with zero lot line homes, Washam said.
Washam, who is vice chairman of the city's planning commission, said he hopes to have the first phase finished in a year to a year and a half. Several buyers have expressed interest, Washam said, but none of the houses have sold.
Washam and the younger Aguiar built several houses in Brodie Creek, and the elder Aguiar, who moved to Arkansas from New Bedford to attend college in 1965, lives in one of them - a yellow, white and green Victorian.
Bob Aguiar said he likes the variety in his neighborhood, which reminds him of the ones he grew up in. "Everything you see now is brick, and it's almost like cookie-cutter. Each one of these houses is totally different."
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