A New Community Flourishes in Rhode Island

Traci Rolz The houses with their cute front porches are nice, but there's not enough density to support the mixed use area, which is located on the far corner of the development. People still need to drive to work and to run errands. The community hall might get used once the week at most.

Laura Gaskill How nice to see this happening in Tiverton (not too far from us in Providence)! I want to go check it out now : )

Sandra This is how people used to live...before the Free Market took over and everyone was "great" and "fantastic" and now do things only for themselves instead of considering others. Long may this type of community flourish and lets hope the rest of us have an opportunity to be involved in something similar in our own worlds.

megriffi My dear friend works for Union Studio--such an amazing group of people doing amazing work!

keen63 I hate to rain on everyone's parade here, but projects like this give me pause. Consider that Sandywoods Farm received over 8 million dollars in Federal funding, that's $160,000 per affordable housing unit. If the low income units are subsized, that means the cooperative is also getting about 75% of the rental income paid by the government. It would seem these monies would be much better spent replacing the infrastructure in small town's and cities in Rhode Island. This is a sweet, subsidized deal for a few at the expense of the many. Looks to me like (crony) capitalism is working fine for the artistic side of the 1% who don't want to work on Wall Street, but nonetheless use their social capital to bring projects like this to fruition.

Lamplighter Shoppe Several questions...Why was the wind turbine feature not built in 2009 when the rest of the housing was begun? If they now have the turbines parts, why are they waiting to start construction this summer? Will its noise affect the tranquility of this complex?

kathryningram Keen63--right on the money.

tadashi This place looks EXACTLY like Prairie Crossing - which is a) fine, but give credit where it is due and b) about 15 years older. http://www.prairiecrossing.com/ When I say exactly, I mean pretty darn near exact from the architecture to the colors to the layout to the common space...etc. Prairie Crossing originally had the market space and community area next to one another and across from a baseball field but they separated it out in later plans to make the market area more accessible and to give balance to the community.

Yes, there are wind turbines, and no, they don't alter the tranqulity. My guess is, though, that this space will encounter many of the same issues: naysaying by neighbors, complaints about how money is spent, exceptionally high taxes based on nearly no legitimate reason (but claimed to be about 'amenities'), and a complete lack of understanding/willingness to understand/therefore blame by some neighbors and political amenities. Which is all a shame, because we would live in any place like this...and are glad it exists elsewhere.

craftyfarmgirl This place reminds me of the Serenbe community outside of Atlanta, GA a bit. Serenbe is not an affordable housing community though, but an agriculture-based sustainable community with a very similar feel: http://www.serenbecommunity.com/serenbeoverview.html.

Brenda McCalla Wow! why are people sooo focused on what are pre-conceived negative aspects of this project??? There are both positive and negative.
Let's focus on what IS good here: It's a community atmosphere - something that we have lost over the last 50 years (remember: "It takes a village to raise a child"), it will have it's own power source to take them off the grid (85%), a community garden - think organic, energy efficient homes, open space and walk-ways, a Hall to support community and events, and last but not least an Agricultural preserve.
I don't think you could ask for much more. In a work related atmosphere, in order for your business to be successful, do you focus on the grumblings and negativity surrounding you? NO, as an owner/boss you focus on the positive yet still address the concerns - But DO NOT let those concern become the 'atmosphere' of your business.
I Love this whole idea! Congratulations to those who were chosen to reside in this lovely and perfect community.

kateskouros keen63 is right on the money. it looks like i get to pay for my housing, along with everyone else's.

kestral Absolutely fabulous development. Great looking houses and wonderful arrangement. The windmills and community garden are fantastic. Congratulations to the people involved in this project....I hope you can do more like this.

gracekimarch This is a fine example of New Urbanism and I'm glad to see the focus on the agriculture. Subsidies aside, I think it's important to see alternative housing models, especially for suburban/rural areas (as this one appears to be). Another attractive model for you to know about is cohousing. I'm not talking about shared households or cooperatives or even communes. I'm talking about people intentionally coming together to create a community where "the village" does feel responsible for raising every child. The built form can look very different depending on it's location - single family homes, duplexes, townhomes, condos, stacked flats. While everyone has their own private home, they also share a common house where they might have shared meals several times a week, as well as a couple of guest rooms, woodshop, childrens' playroom, and media room. If you want to learn more, visit www.cohousing.org.

Becky Harris tadashi, I did not think to ask about particular precedents, which would have been a good question, but there are quite a few neighborhoods out there like this, and hopefully there will be many more to come, provided we can change the way the suburbs zone neighborhoods - usually the lot requirements and setbacks prevent the clustering of the residences and leaving the rest of the space open and shared. Douglas did tell me that they know Randall Arendt well and I thought of his books and a lecture of his I attended about 12 years ago when I saw this neighborhood.

When I worked for the planning board in Hingham MA, the affordable housing initiative for developers (I believe the developers had to have 10% affordable units to bypass a bunch of the town boards at the time in MA) meant that teachers and fireman, etc. could actually have a chance to live in the town that they served.

dpowers101098 " Consider that Sandywoods Farm received over 8 million dollars in Federal funding, that's $160,000 per affordable housing unit."
Keen63, you are wrong. The project received about 1 million in low income tax credits along with about .5 m in various guaranteed loans and grants. I'm not certain, but I don't think there are any voucher based retails in the project (meaning all rents are paid out of renters income. Besides those tax credits and miscellaneous subsidy- which I do not claim are insignificant) the project is self performing . The tax credits become the "equity" that the banks need to see before lending. After that the project needs to pencil out like any other.
So in actuality, the subsidy is far far less.
As for the person who suggested it is a copy of Pratie Crossing, can you direct me to that, because neither Douglas Kallfelz nor I (his partner) are aware of it. (perhaps we should have been!) . To all the folks with positive things to say, thank you.

janedavis17 i think keene is right. another sweet deal for a few and the rest of us get to pay for it. ayn rand was so prophetic. more and more citizens are bailing due to the debt load supported by taxes. ultimately it will collapse- what a tragedy.

janedavis17 sorry i spelled your name incorrectly, keen.

Phillip Andrew Jessup I notice the Market Rate homes are separated from the affordable homes. Is this because their forms are substantially different, or for marketing reasons? In older neighborhoods, such as the one where I live in downtown Atlanta, an aspect that makes them especially appealing is the diverse mix of house styles, layouts, and sizes. Even with gentrification, this has allowed a somewhat broader mix of people living in a given neighborhood.

tadashi Dpowers prairiecrossing.com
http://www.prairiecrossing.com/pc/site/amenities.html

dpowers101098 Phillip, we tried mightily to integrate the market rate homes, but the legal and financial structure of low-income tax credit projects dictates a definite physical boundary to the land allocated to it. (not always, but in this case) IE: in this case we were not allowed to integrate the market rate homes with the affordable. It is a failing we are well aware of.

mariette65 The 170 acre community in Tiverton, RI, is a wonderful mix of continuity and innovation. Union Studio Architecture and Community Design strikes a wonderful balance between an age old farming community and working artists seeking to provide a cultural entree to this traditional agrarian society. It seems to me that this could be a prototype community on many levels, not the least of which is a conscious effort to maximize energy efficiency. Bravo! Thanks for such stimulating content in this post.

ember Love this. This is the way things should be done..

cnudesign New Urbanism, not so much. Lipstick on tradition sprawl is more the case. Have a use (Agriculture) associated with open space does not make it Urbanism. Traditional Architectural designs using modern building techniques, nothing new there and does not make it New Urbanism. 74 units on 170 Acres = equals 1 unit per 2.4 acres= low density extended over large areas of land is sprawl, either “Urban” or “Rural”. Compatibility? They circumvented that buy avoiding the community boards that were established to represent the community. So now we have 74 units with 2.47 people per home (RI average) equals 162 people living in an area where the only way to get to employment is to drive a car. Now all these 162 people need public services and public services are located in urban areas, so now the public has to pay additional cost to provide the essential services to these individual that the public is subsidizing to live in rural areas. Smart Growth not so much either. What we see is lots of promoting, pretty pictures, very low density, publically subsidized growth,? Rural Sprawl, Yes.
Build it to accommodate 350 Units with similar design and material requirements Education, Research and Development Campus /Employment center, and the Commercial/Community center and the Recreation AND then they might have something that is actually “Sustainable”.

Becky Harris I don't understand how people are reading "aspects of new urbanism" and hearing "this is totally 100% new urbanism." If you are going to leave a negative comment, at least read the story you are commenting on. And please lose the lame sarcasm.

The point of this project is to preserve open space, create energy efficiency that is better than almost any other community's in this whole country, and foster community.

This land was for sale for typical suburban development. This wonderful neighborhood has clustered the homes and kept much more (147 acres) open space than the usual zoning requirements would, keeping ecosystems and the rural nature of the area in place. If this were a usual gated cul-de-sac built according to zoning laws, there would be likely be shoddy McMansions spread out all over the entire property, along with tons more pavement and clearing and lawns, no farm (history and character erased), no woods; the typical ecologically insensitive neighborhood that does not foster community or promote the arts. The public would be paying for those same services that the last commenter is complaining about. Oh, except I highly doubt there would be a wind turbine providing most of the power to the neighborhood in that scenario.

cnudesign The issue here is that the project is subsidized growth outside of an Urban Core where the increased cost is born by the local residents and existing business owners. The issue is that it is exceedingly low density. The 74 units will never pay for the cost of infrastructure that is required to support the project. The issue is that the project is simply greenfield development that uses the images of an artist colony to justify it. Saying that the project has “aspects of new urbanism” is saying nothing. If the project has a road and sidewalks it has “aspects of new urbanism”.
Sustainable, economically viable Agriculture? No. What they have is open space with a passive use that is subsidized.
Over time these types of development actually create a greater amount of impervious surface, greater environmental impacts and greater costs to the public over time.
The local government most likely has a Cultural Arts plan that is somehow tied to economic development with no actual preformed or specific economic requirements. It’s the current rage in Economic Development. In this plan it will say the county will promote opportunities to expand the “Cultural Arts” by creating “Live-Work” housing opportunities. The problem is it does not fit in a rural, sub-urban environment. What individuals justify is a case where a local landowner was wanting make some money finds a way to use the local comprehensive plan to subsidize growth and allow him to sell off some land avoiding much of the approval process. There is not the critical mass and infrastructure to support this use. Add employment, higher density, greater diversity and intensity housing choices, mass transit, take out the housing and development subsidies and they might have something.