Absolutely!

It looks like a great location! I would definitely build there.

Small kids, and only across the street from the park - sounds like paradise to me!

Sounds like a great location!

Great!!! Thank you so much!

Great location!

It is part of a hoa so we will be paying for upkeep and hopefully avoiding situations like that.

I live across the street from a park and it's great! No front neighbors to deal with and you can't beat the view. The only time it gets a bit annoying is during spring & summer holidays. The park gets packed especially on Easter. As long as it's well maintained by the neighborhood it's well worth having a park across the street.

Yes, a great idea. I love rear entry/alleyway houses. Just a tip, unless you have a choice on exterior paint colors, I would purchase the lot and wait to build last on the street or this will be your living situation for awhile as it was mine:

Lovely location!

My only concern would be that if they plan to put in a playground area, sometimes there can be a bit of noise, but it looks like the plan is for more of a nature type park? We have a park with a playground just up the street and in the summer if the windows are open you do hear the kids a bit, but on the other hand 9-10 year olds from this block regularly go to the park by themselves to play, which is good for them to have a bit of independence. (Handily it is a small park and the geography is such that from several bedroom windows you can see 95% of the playground area at least, so as long as you make the kid wear something you can pick out at a distance, you can let them be independent but still be able to keep an eye on them.)

Yes that makes sense, they are not sure yet if there will be an actual playground or not. I'd assume it would be by the corner entrance of so.
I think it will be neat to send the kids to play across the street, we have a little while for that but nice for the future.
We are pretty sure we will build here.
I really appreciate everyone's feedback!

We had a situation in the Phoenix area recently where the lovely "parks" were in reality designed as retention basins for water run off in heavy storms. In our recent case, the "parks" couldn't hold the amount of water runoff and the adjacent homes were flooded. This may not apply in your case, but it may be something you want to think about and explore a little further.

Who owns the park? As far as noise goes, parks here are only "open" during the daylight hours....

I've lived in a master-planned community for 15 years now, lots of parks! I've lived in 4 different homes. I never minded being close to parks, it was the school zones and the traffic congestion that comes within a mile of those that I would steer clear of. Also, water parks and skate parks..yes, we have both, are much noisier than the neighborhood park with play equipment.

Good luck to you!

We lived near a park. Sounds of baseball fans screaming, late night teenaged hijinks with accompanying blasting rap music, strangers around your house all the time, park visitors parking in your driveway or blocking it, visitors leaving garbage, dog poop everywhere...there is no upside to being near a park unless it is a vast forested one with people far away from you.

Also the Little League games with their traffic and parking crowd. So much depends on the exact park facilities and configuration.

I know and no one quite knows what it will end up like. A few non park lots came up so we're debating again!!! The only thing is they are smaller lots for the same price :/

Sounds like the lower price for these larger lots by the park tells you that someone "in the know" has decided there is a disadvantage to building on them. With young children, I would be concerned about having any water feature nearby. They are such a draw for kids. (On the other hand, my daughter's family with three kids, now teens, has grown up right across from a boat-able river, with forest preserve on two sides just a block or two away and a busy road two blocks away in the other direction.) As for kids having freedom and being watched from a distance, many of today's parents feel it is far too risky. We live in a very nice area, but almost once a month when the kids were in grade school there were warning notices sent home or even phone alerts from the local schools about a "stranger" trying to get a child or children into their car... I re-thought my old-fashioned ideas of free play very quickly! Sorry to be negative!

No matter where you live there are advantages and disadvantages and danger. I raised my children on the edge of a subdivision but we had 10 acres of land adjacent to it. They loved it. My daughter lives in a apartment with her hubby and son on a dead end street facing a large field. The location is great but there are obvious confines for my grandson. Of course, the older he gets, the less "eye-on" supervision he needs but when he was younger it was vital that he be within eyesight of an adult.

All that to say, there are always trade-offs. What you have to decide is what you really want and what you are ready to give up to get that. You've gotten lots of good advice on both sides of the issue. I will say, that no matter how close I lived to a park, it would be a long time before I let them go by themselves. Stranger danger is real at pretty much any age.

I live around the corner from one and we still have a large amount of traffic from people cruising the neighborhood. There are always cars parked in front of the houses that overlook the park - you will have to decide if this is a problem.

This park was also a catch-basin so on the rare occasions when it rained, the park filled with water - some of it from backed-up sewers. The builder "donated" the park land as part of his agreement with the city for his development. At the time we bought, the land was level with the surroundings, but then he cleared out all the topsoil to make housing pads so it wound up a depression.

A large controversy was whether the park would have restrooms or not with heated arguments on both sides. Those who did not live near the park wanted them, of course, and argued that the neighborhood was elitist by not having them. The local homeowners didn't want to encourage crime (it's easy to hide drug deals behind bathroom doors) and didn't want to pay for the upkeep - citing the likelihood of expensive vandalism.

I think your poll should have asked if someone who had lived near a park would do so again. It looks nice and sounds enticing, but might not be, based on the size of the park, location, and amenities. I would consider living around the corner, but not across the street.

Plus, if the area "park" is really more a catch basin for rain, there could be a mosquito problem.

Thank you so much that is very good information - at this point now that some off park plots we are leaning towards those.

The plots I have circled in blue are now available, same price but a little smaller.

Never build across from a park, school, business center, shopping mall, etc.

Perhaps the price difference is due to the roads. The lots across from the park appear to be on a road that will have a lot of traffic getting in, out, and across the neighborhood. The lots circled in blue may have less traffic as they are not central to getting though or across the development.

Please think long and hard before you build next to a park. We bought a house backed up to a park and had no end of trouble. Noise, traffic, trash, teenagers hanging out and being destructive. You name it. And we started out just like you. We thought "Oh, how wonderful it will be for our kids. How lovely it will be having no one behind us, we can play all day, etc..." And the park was enclosed in one of the best neighborhoods in town. How wrong we were. We stayed because we couldn't afford to leave and when we did leave we had to sell our house for a loss. In fact, every house in our town next to a park sells for a loss. Why? Because it never ends up to be the oasis it's made out to be. Like the previous commenter said, if the lots are selling for less there is a reason. If you do build, I wish you the best. We just finished building our new home - high up on a hill, far, far way from the maddening crowd.

Wow, I guess you really have to look at the type of town, homes and park. I have twice lived adjacent to parks and loved it. But I have to say that parks in my town aren't really a haven for all of the horrible things described here anyway. We have separate types of parks for little league type things and those are public parks. Private parks don't usually hold public events in my area. Both times I lived near one the parks were in the city and the homes were old and established so there was no problem with water run-off. It sounds like the problem is more with the developer and their integrity rather than the park itself. I also have to say though that I don't get freaked out by having people outside in my neighborhood. If you want to be away from people you probably shouldn't build in a sub-division anyway but get a remote piece of land and enjoy.

Kaylee, I think your park, in an area of older established houses, would probably be wonderful. Sort of the New England town square sort of thing. This is more the unknown quantity off a busy road. I hate being negative, but want to bring up all possible things to look into. Poster will be living there a long time.

Poster, maybe hold off until one of the cul de sac lots further in is available? I live on one, and besides the lack of traffic, there is addition security: if a car drives in (since it is rare), everyone checks it out!

I live across the street from a park. I love it. The sounds of children playing are delightful. It's very quiet at night. I do occasionally get trash that blows away from people at the park in my yard, but it isn't that much and easy enough to pick up. The view is very nice - lots of big trees and open spaces.

As far as letting kids go by themselves and "stranger danger" stuff - most of the more recent things I've encountered are saying that the way children are protected from everything now is quite possibly BAD for them, because they never get to learn to be independent. Plus, the vast majority of bad things that happen to kids are not done by strangers, but rather by people the kids know. So if kiddo's school sent home a note about stranger danger, it'd probably go right in the trash and he'd keep walking to the park. (You have to decide based on environment, of course - there are no busy roads between here and the park and like I said, all of the bits he's allowed to be in to play without a parent are visible from various rooms in the house, as is the entire walk TO the park. Heck, if you had good lungs you could probably actually shout to someone.)

That said, it sounds like there's a lot of uncertainty about what the park area will actually be used for? That would put me off more than there just being a park there. I'd want to know if it was something I wanted to stare at all the time BEFORE I committed to the property. Heck, technically a skate park is a park, but I don't want to live across from a big concrete pool type structure and a bunch of other concrete and metal stuff! :)

The new interior ones you highlighted in blue seem better. Since they are phase 2 instead of phase 4 you may also not be putting up with construction noise/dirt for quite as long.

Clarifying my prior comment, I would like to say that I have always taught my three children to be independent. They grew up rambling through our neighborhood on their bikes but the three of them were usually together or with other friends. I did not raise mine in a bubble nor do I advocate that mentality. However, I did not have a public park nearby in which strangers frequented daily. When I did take my children to a park, I was keenly aware of where they were as well as those around them. I am also highly aware that strangers are only part of the danger to children and was always involved in all of their activities, not as a helicopter mom, but to know who was part of my children's lives. Anyone that knows my children will testify to their independence in both thought and deeds (often to my chagrin). There is definitely a balance that has to be struck. My comments above were not meant to encourage an overprotective environment, just to say there are two sides to ..well...pretty much everything.

abryant - just looking at the plot map (I don't know the area), I think you would be happier in one of the two lots you circled in blue. However, that is JUST my opinion. You know what the neighborhoods look like, how the builder is doing, financially , and what is considered desirable in your town. I did note that you would be on a through-street, but when I look at probably traffic patterns, it seems there are many other ways for traffic to flow and would probably be OK.

I lived a house away from a park and during spring it was incredibly noisy. I also know of two kids that were molested in that park. I'm not saying that will happen, but things like that do occur. Wait and buy an Estate lot. The second choice seems better than the first if you can't get an Estate lot because you are further away from multi-housing and commercial.

I like the ones circled in blue a little better given the uncertainty of exactly what they will be doing with the park, and the street layout - that is still plenty close enough to the park for the kids to go by themselves when they are old enough to do so safely (navigate traffic and so on) but if they do something you aren't in love with in the park area you aren't stuck staring at it from your front windows all the time. Plus, it is clear they are expecting more traffic flow on the streets directly around the park just by street size - probably anticipating people parking on the street too, for park access? With little kids to start with, you may prefer to be on a slightly quieter street.

And having people parking along the street does also get annoying. Where I am, we are near a school so it is only bad at drop off and pick up times, so it is limited, but even that is annoying if you want to come or go at that time - people will crowd in as close as they can to driveways, etc. And if driveway parking is limited, you do have to warn visitors about busy times if they are going to need to park on the street.

Only you know your situation, but maybe hold off a year or so, save up as much as possible, and then an estate lot?

We have a rear entry house facing a small neighborhood park and love it. There is a small playground, small retention pond that is a basketball court when dry, and a covered pavilion. We don't mind the noise the kids make and we get to meet alot of our neighbors. All of our homes have large front porches which I think would encourage the neighbor interaction.

Maebemary - Yes, we have a front porch also, as do several other people in the area, and it definitely helped especially when we'd just moved in, once the weather warmed up. You see people out on their porches, plus people walk past to get to the park and so you see people and get to say hello that way.

Both our homes (winter and summer) are across the street from parks--we love it! The view is green and open, rather than looking at someone else's house! One is a "natural" park, while the other has a traditional playground and lawn, etc. They are both great. The playground was awesome when my kids were little like yours (it's like having a yard that's 8 times bigger, without the maintenance costs and headaches!). And now the playground is a nice draw for friends with toddlers. The other park is just beautiful to look at (and my preteen likes to go exploring there sometimes...). We've lived in homes not on parks, and this is absolutely better!

We live in a master planned community --It is a mixed-income, mixed-use walkable community that offers a variety of single-family homes including cottages, village homes, estate and grand estate homes. There five parks scattered throughout the neighborhood that differ in use. Some have playground equipment-- another has table with patio furniture and is covered--another has Gazebo where adults can entertain or have large children's parties --a wedding was held last summer--also basketball court in another area. My husband and I enjoy the flat sidewalks throughout the neighborhood.
View is from our front door...