Planning rules bring economic diversity
Craig Lewis is a Davidson resident and principal with The Lawrence Group, a local planning and architecture firm. The firm has helped plan Davidson Hall, off Pine Road, approved Tuesday by the Town Board
I’ve heard comments about how new development should reflect the character and
spirit of our town a number of times during the planning process for Davidson Hall. As a 12-year Davidson resident, who lives in what is arguably the town’s first modern infill project on Watson Street (which put Davidson in Southern Living magazine for its early efforts at “smart growth”), I have a unique perspective. In fact, I live in one of the densest, most economically diverse neighborhoods in town.
Before our 17 homes on 30- to 36-foot-wide lots (with an alley) were built, the town’s development patterns took four simple forms: medium-sized homes on medium to large lots on the east side, mill homes and ’60s ranches on the west side, condos on the lake, and River Run. If we were to follow this pattern, our town’s population would sprawl off into the countryside, eating up our long-cherished rural lands.
But in the early 1990s our town’s leaders, with broad citizen support, chose a different path. We adopted the Davidson land plan which in fact opened our community to receive a much broader (and denser) variety of housing forms and styles and prices.
Each new neighborhood built under the Land Plan and its successor, the Planning Ordinance, has only increased this variety. This has added to the character of Davidson - not to the detriment of its prosperity, but in support of it. The leadership and volunteerism that has come from individuals who have moved into these denser, infill areas has been impressive.
Ironically, I recall there was strong opposition to the New Neighborhood in Old Davidson (off Concord Road near St. Alban’s Church) because of its small lots and claims of inferior housing. And at the time, those of us advocating for a more sustainable/denser pattern of development were working very hard to convince builders and developers that they could build more valuable homes on smaller lots.
Of course today, it is a showcase neighborhood at both a local and a national scale. Home values in the New Neighborhood have been exceptional, even though there are homes that are quite large on postage-stamp lots within a few feet of the sidewalk. Prior to the new ordinance, who would have conceived of 3,000-plus-square-foot homes on 55 ft by 150 ft lots on Caldwell Lane next to St. Alban’s Church? Yet with a combination of good architectural details and a beautiful streetscape (required by code) no one could seriously use the terms “gated” or “McMansion” to describe this elegant street.
As the designers of Davidson Hall, my firm knows there will be a very similar aesthetic as was previously established in the New Neighborhood. Add 12 to 16 feet to the rear of the houses along Caldwell Lane and you will have an accurate idea of Davidson Hall in 10 years (maybe sooner).
As a advocate for smart growth and sustainable development patterns for my entire career, I can tell you that the hardest sell for denser/more sustainable living has been the wealthy. They always have the means to buy larger lots further from our community centers. Twenty years ago, this group would have purchased almost exclusively in places like River Run, on 1/2-acre-plus lots. In infilling an existing neighborhood with moderate density (2 units per acre, clustered) that is already served by utilities and is within biking distance of downtown, we in a very real way relieved some pressure to develop this same number of units across 60 or 100 acres, miles from town. Ask any nationally prominent smart growth proponent and they will tell you what a tremendous victory this truly is.
TOUGH RULES, BETTER RESULTS
And finally, this neighborhood has been characterized negatively because we supposedly sought only to meet the “technical requirements” of the ordinance. This is a red herring. Our town ordinance is one of the most stringent in the country and as our Planning Director put it, it is the principal component of our community’s national recognition for smart growth.
Meeting the town’s minimum standards already ensures a far, far better-than-average neighborhood, by local or national standards. In fact, the developer and owner of Davidson Hall agreed to exceed those standards in many ways and in doing so, are helping to craft new policy that will hopefully be applied more uniformly across our community.
To build a truly beautiful town involves development by many hands in small increments. These 34 lots are but a drop in the larger Davidson bucket, but they bring an additional level of diversity to our community that will increase our vibrancy and sustainability for decades to come.
Filed under: Davidson people, Living with Growth
I couldn’t agree more with Craig on many of his well-stated points. Development 1960s style is not what we want in the 21st century, because frankly we have much less land to go around, and we need to develop in ways that are more environmentally sensitive. My company’s infill development of 9 houses on just over 2 acres (note that the primary context in which we are building are adjacent condominium and townhome projects) is reflective of my belief in “smart growth” principles: dense, energy-efficient, historically reflective, and diverse.
I also agree that Craig lives in a fairly economically diverse part of town, and have written before on this site that one of the most promising things I see about the residential development off Exit 30 is its diversity of residents. While we have economic diversity within our town limits, we have limited diversity within streets and neighborhoods.
I would hope that Davidson Hall develops along the lines of the St. Alban’s neighborhood, where I live. We have a variety of housing styles, many parks, and a wide variety of housing prices, including affordable. That is why no one would even think of using the term “gated community” to describe our neighborhood. It has nothing to do with density or house size, but rather with a spirit of inclusion.