Master-planned communities around the world are developed and purposefully planned to address housing sustainability and community connectivity; they often have a distinctive look, and appeal to a particular customer base desiring a strong, utopian-esque community. However, the lived experience of new residents joining master-planned communities has not been explored. This paper examines the lived experience of new residents within an emerging Australian master-planned estate, and reports on the first two stages of a longitudinal study focusing on the results of an online forum. This unique study presents real-life findings on a culturally diverse community. The findings reveal how the purposeful development of community identity in the early stages of the MPCommunity has not led to satisfactory levels of social infrastructure or social connectedness for the pioneering residents. The physical and social environment, as interpreted by residents against the developers’ imagined vision and marketing testimonies, has not been entirely satisfactory. Infrastructure issues—such as transport, and access to daily activities such as shopping, work, and school—were points of frustration and dissatisfaction. The findings provide insight into the challenges and opportunities for residents in a developing MPC, and further our understanding of the specific factors that inform us as to how social infrastructure can best encourage and support connection within existing and future MPC developments.

Neighborhoods are designed to contribute towards establishing and maintaining community bonds. Gated communities, a recognizable form of housing developments in the Gulf Region, have an impact on neighborhoods and cities’ livability-namely on the quality of life of residents. In the city of Doha, gated communities are widely diffused and considered as one of the most common types of housing, which greatly influence residents’ social interactions. This research study aims to investigate the sense of community in Al-Ein compound in Ein Khaled neighborhood. Oral and Visual data was collected through (A) in-depth interviews with residents and (B) site visits, observation and photographs of the compound’s physical settings. The findings reveal that the sense of community measured in Al-Ein compound is high due to the robust community’s ties and connections among residents. Also, the findings provide guidelines to policy makers, urban planners and designers for the implementation of residential compounds’ settings in Doha.

The concept of gated community housing is a feature of contemporary housing development. Housing developers promote this concept through an emphasis on security in gated housing. House owners today favour fenced-in residences, not only for their homes, but also for the entire housing development, including recreational areas and other facilities. The aim of this study is to prioritize the elements of physical security in a gated community housing development. The methodology employed a quantitative approach using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in ascertaining the weightage for each element deemed important in the planning of secure gated community housing, with focus on the elements of access, fencing, CCTV installation, lighting, guardhouse and landscape, which are the principal elements that serve to enforce security in the protected community. The results of this study showed that two principal elements, namely access to the property (entry/exit points) and protective fencing, were deemed the most important in providing security in gated community housing. Accordingly, these aspects should be accorded particular attention in the planning of gated communities in the future and be factored into the strategy to enhance security.Gated community housing and guarded neighbourhoods employing such a strategy would be quite effective in providing security to residents.

ABSTRACT Master Planned Community (MPC) Developments are a dominant form of urban growth and housing development. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the associations between MPCs and community health. Our review of 39 peer-reviewed journal papers suggested that the MPC physical features (public spaces/facilities, built form, spatial segregation, and location), social dimension (age structure and community development) and governance (private governance and housing tenure) are key players in the health of residents, particularly, their social health. This paper provides valuable information for future research on healthy housing and informs planning and decision-making in housing policy and development.

This paper is situated at the interface of a growing urban studies literature concerned with 'masterplanning' practices in urban planning and another, hitherto relatively discrete, body of research concerned with age-friendly cities and communities. The authors are interested in exploring a gap in aging in place literature around how neighbourhoods and residential settings developed with aging in place principles in mind are experienced and perceived by residents. To explore this research gap, the authors analyse qualitative (primarily interview and focus group) data collected in Park Central, a masterplanned development located in the Campbelltown suburb in the southwest region of the Sydney metropolitan area, Australia. This development was delivered in response to a need identified by the state's land and property development agency, Landcom, for more diverse and affordable medium-density housing in Campbelltown. In particular, a need was identified for housing developments that would be able to sustainably accommodate the changing lifestyle needs of a maturing population in the region. Drawing on our thematic analysis of our data, we discern three key themes in research participants' experiences of Park Central as a place for aging. These themes are elaborated via recourse to excerpts from our data and discussed with a view to informing how the conception, development and practice of further age-friendly communities is approached.

Smart growth strategies of infill and compact growth in existing suburban cities will most likely not be sufficient to absorb a new US household growth in the future. To meet housing demands and preferences, master-planned communities will continue to be built in outlying exurban areas. However, little is known about the impacts these communities may have on the surrounding physical, built and social environment in the exurban landscape. In this paper, we provide a review of the literature of what is known about the drivers behind the development of master-planned communities and the physical, built and social impacts of these developments on the surrounding exurban landscape. We then provide a case study of an exurban area outside of Seattle, Washington containing a large master-planned community. Through focus group interviews, we explore residential motivations to move to the area, and the benefits and challenges of living in an exurban landscape with a newly built master-planned community. Using qualitative data analyses, we find that residents are drawn to this exurban area for the abundance of natural amenities and outdoor recreation opportunities. However, the new master-planned community development presents many benefits and challenges for those living in the area; particularly the residential perceptions of impacts that the development has had on the surrounding natural and built environment. These real and perceived impacts of the master-planned community development has compounded and magnified the impacts to the social environment throughout the entire exurban community. Implications for planners and suggestions for future research are given.

As cities around the world struggle to cope with increasing populations, major new master planned housing developments are being undertaken to meet the demand for housing. Such urban developments are influencing workforce, household, and community relations, which in turn drive health and well-being outcomes, and affect social capital and labour market participation. This paper reports findings from the first phase of data collection for the Work, Home and Community Project. Fourteen focus groups were conducted with 68 men and women who live and/or work at newly developed master planned communities in South Australia and Victoria. Findings indicate that familiarity, availability, and the enabling of social bridges contribute to the development of community and social capital in these residential areas. For individuals at different stages of life these factors were facilitated or inhibited by specific physical and social infrastructures in the residential area and the workplace. At a time when concerns are being raised about the ability of people to combine work, home, and community these findings shed some light on the physical and social infrastructures that can enable or constrain the building of healthy communities.

Planned unit developments, also called planned communities, are a major development type. Originally cluster housing projects with common open space, they can be planned today as infill in downtown areas or as a major master-planned community. They require discretionary review, are often dominant in the zoning process, and present a challenge to the zoning system. A threshold question is how municipalities should zone for planned unit developments, and this Article discusses conditional use, base zone, and rezoning alternatives. This Article next discusses the zoning review process for these developments, which must operate fairly and produce acceptable decisions. Alternatives that can avoid or supplement discretionary review are considered next, and this Article concludes with a discussion of affordable housing as a social responsibility.

It is frequently assumed older adults who move to senior housing communities (SHCs) will socialize more and be less lonely. The purpose of this study is to describe changes in residents’ frequency of socialization and loneliness since moving into senior housing, and to determine factors associated with these changes. Ninety-six older adults living in two SHCs completed cross-sectional surveys with items regarding changes in socialization and loneliness since moving into a SHC, age, education, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, years lived in the SHC, and distance to previous residence. Analyses for the current study include descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression models. Since moving into a SHC, twenty-five percent of residents had decreases in socializing with family, 20% had decreases in socializing with friends, 19% had decreases in level of companionship, 21% felt more left out, and 14% felt more isolated. Age, education, anxiety symptoms, and years living in the SHC were related to changes in socialization and loneliness in the multinomial logistic models. These analyses suggest a significant portion of older adults living in senior housing may socialize with friends and family less and feel lonelier after moving to senior housing. It is important to understand the reasons for decreasing social interactions and increasing loneliness after older residents move to senior housing, and how to intervene upon their behalf. Additional studies are needed to determine if these findings are consistent, and interventions should be developed to increase socializing and decrease loneliness among residents living in senior housing.

In the past half-century, the oil-producing states of the Arab Gulf have undergone rapid and radical socioeconomic transformations, with particularly prominent transformations evident in the areas of urbanization and migration. While gated housing developments for foreign white-collar professionals have become prevalent in the cities of the Gulf, little attention has been paid to the social dimensions associated with these developments. This article examines the local social networks of female residents of gated communities in Bahrain. Drawing on data from surveys and in-depth interviews, the article identifies factors in the built and social environments that support or limit the formation of local social networks by the residents of gated communities. Based on these factors, the article offers a generalizable conceptual framework for understanding the mechanisms that shape the social networks of gated community residents. The article concludes that a focus on the perspectives of female gated community residents in Bahrain enhances understandings of urbanization and migration in the Gulf city.