Contemporary Master Planned Community Practice

Abstract

The authors discuss an on-going research on the planning and implementing of master planned communities in different countries, and their implications for contemporary planning practice. They show that the developers goal is for the MPC to become the place “of choice” for residents and employers over the long term, and that success is directly linked to the ability to adapt implementation processes and strategies that meet market and social needs. Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus This Faculty and Student Work is brought to you for free and open access by the City and Regional Planning at DigitalCommons@CalPoly. It has been accepted for inclusion in Focus by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CalPoly. For more information, please contact mwyngard@calpoly.edu. Recommended Citation Siembieda, William and Sturmer, Jerry (2005) Master Planned Community Practice, Focus: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 9. DOI: 10.15368/focus.2005v2n1.4 Available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus/vol2/iss1/9 William Siembieda PhD, Department Head Jerry Sturmer MCRP Student City and Regional Planning Department Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Contemporary Master Planned Community Practice The authors discuss an on-going research on the planning and implementing of master planned communities in different countries, and their implications for contemporary planning practice. They show that the developers goal is for the MPC to become the place “of choice” for residents and employers over the long term, and that success is directly linked to the ability to adapt implementation processes and strategies that meet market and social needs. City planners and community designers have always had a fascination with the concept of master planned communities (MPC). The MPC ideal was used by Ebenezer Howard to organize his design for the ‘garden city’ the designers answer to the environmental and community problems arising from the industrial revolution in Europe. In the United States MPC concepts, influenced by Howard, were tried in our own garden cities movements, as well as the federally sponsored “new towns” efforts during the 1970’s. The MPC remains, especially, in the western United States a powerful ideal to create more livable environments. The contemporary MPC of today is not a “garden city” in the sense of meeting all employment, housing, cultural, public transport and recreational needs for a population of 50,000 people as was the case for Ebenezer Howard. Today’s MPC are attempts at providing some balance between housing, recreation, security, employment and cultural within the given boundaries of a single land use plan that is built in phases as a response to market demands and regulatory requirements. So, how would you go about designing for a land parcel of 10,000 acres? To better understand the contemporary MPC process and what it produces we examined a group of master planned communities and new towns that have been built over the past 40 years. We wanted to understand the major elements related to the land planning, the urban design, and the implementation of these projects and how these elements influence a project’s overall success. To obtain a more global perspective MPCs nine projects located in the United States, and five outside of nonUS (Brazil, Singapore, China, Spain and Vietnam) were examined. While all the US projects are all privately sponsored, those in China, Spain and Vietnam have some form of government participation. MPCs tend to locate at the urban fringe, not far from a major metropolitan area which provides them access to jobs and potential residents. Fig. 1: Aerial view of Rancho Santa Margarita, California (from Gause, J., ed. “Great Planned Communities”. Washington: ULI, 2002). In order to understand what MPC were, and are, we established some common elements that help define them as creators of urban form. For the US the composite MPC profile is about 5,000 acre plus land area, 40% of which is in recreation/open space uses. The basic unit of design is the ‘village” of 300400 acres. Villages are linked together by road hierarchies and recreation systems, with groups of villages forming the demand for localized (not neighborhood) retail. The MPC provides substantial employment opportunities in its office and business parks. Social and cultural amenities are present in the form of churches, clubs, and civic associations. Establishing a ‘sense of community’ is an active part of the establishing viability for an MPC. Constructing a “sense’ of community” is part of the developers “social design” process. The homeowners associations bind people together at least in terms of maintaining their common areas and roadways. These “micro maintenance” districts are critical to the long term viability of MPCs as they establish special interest groups that support the MPC internally and externally. 32 FOCUS volume 2, April 2005 For the non US cases (except for Brazil, which replicates the US model) the projects build vertically, using 6 to 12 story apartment towers, organized in groups to form neighborhoods. Local retail is provided to the building block groups, as is local recreation. In China, Vietnam and Singapore, long term land leases are provided for residential and commercial uses to private developers. The local or provincial governments provide substantial off-site infrastructure support. In the Spanish case, an independent government development corporation was established that sold land to builders and users. In all of these projects the government objective is to provide incentives to the private sector to build housing and employment centers using private capital. This is a publicprivate partnership model. Figure 2. Land use map of Summerlin, Nevada (from Gause, J, ed. “Great Planned Communities”. Washington: ULI, 2002). As in the case of the US, the concept of village, or cluster of activities, is a leading urban design concept. People are brought together spatially, and then the other elements, such as parks, transit, schools, employment centers are put in place.