New Urbanism Legends Kick Off Development Conference

The acclaimed duo is part of a four-day SmartCode Workshop, organized by Miami-based PlaceMakers Inc. and hosted by the North Texas Council of Governments. The conference, which wraps up Saturday, targets planners, architects, developers, politicians and area leaders for long-range community planning.

"We are creating the kinds of places that will sustain America for 100 years," Nelessen, principal of A. Nelessen Associates Inc. of Belle Mead, NJ, told the audience at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth's CBD. "What we need is a national comprehensive applied code to replace what we have...inappropriate and outdated zoning. Is what's out there what people really want or is it what the codes will allow?"

SmartCode is touted as a "gateway to the future of American land planning," a template for growth based on New Urbanism principles to create pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods that are practical, sustainable and desirable. "In America, we used to do things well," said Duany, principal of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. of Miami. "The majority of the great places in this country were built for profit. The problem now is not the profit motive, the problem is the process."

Zoning standards that have evolved as controls for suburban sprawl effectively disallows urban centers, Duany explained. "What's most disturbing is what's happening out there is actually legal," he added.

The suburbs might have all the elements of a town, but "they're never assembled properly," Duany continued. "When you live in suburbia, you can actually starve to death if you can't drive. The labor movement reduced the work day to eight hours and then planners made it a 10-hour day with the commute."

The issue before the pair of New Urbanists and a panel of regional leaders was whether the development technique will work in North Texas. Southlake, Duany said, is "a stage set...a monoculture" and not a New Urbanism development. Sundance Square, he added, shows "the power of urbanism...four city blocks and you become a tourist place." And West Palm Beach, a Duany project, "is flawed, with mistakes that we wouldn't make again," he said, explaining a 70-acre tract was developed quickly and by one developer.

"It's a monoculture. It's out of date. And West Palm Beach is stuck with an incredibly out-of-date town center," Duany said. "You really need many hands and many humans to create a great place." And that's what Cousins Properties is doing at its Las Villitas development in Las Colinas, a mixed-use neighborhood laid out by Duany and rising under the craftsmanship of multiple developers.

Whether or not it's a Duany-stamped development, diversity, density and mixed use are the keys and integration is what makes it sell. "It's not how much density, but how you create the density," said Sandra Dennehy, principal in Dennehy Architects of Fort Worth. "Building buildings does not necessarily create a community."

Though Texas still has plenty of open land, the region's population is resting at 5.5 million and another four million people are projected to arrive in the coming years. "It's not if we build it, they will come," said Lucilo Pena, president of Billingsley Development Co. and developer of the 2,000-acre Austin Ranch. "The reality is they're coming. It's what are we going to build."