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| Advocating development of downtown and building support for sustainable growth will create a more vibrant community, according to the Greater Waco Economic Development Plan. |
IMAGINE GOING TO WORK, visiting a bookstore after lunch with friends and picking up a gallon of milk before returning home—all without using a car.
There are few places you could do that in Waco today. But if the new Traditional Neighborhood Task Force chaired by Waco developer-homebuilder Steve Sorrells is successful, it’s an option you may be able to consider in the future.
It’s been called New Urbanism, Smart Growth and Sustainable Community Development and it is transforming cities across the nation.
The idea that someone could live and work within a five-minute walk of many everyday needs may seem unlikely for Waco, but maybe it’s not.
New urbanism is definitely appropriate for downtown given that the center city was planned before the automobile.
The new Chamber headquarters building at Heritage Square will be an example of new urbanism in that it will open onto the sidewalk on Third Street rather than onto a parking lot.
The blocks surrounding the Chamber building will include restaurants, shops, offices and housing, linking the new Hilton Hotel and River Square Center with the soon to be completed Roosevelt building and future development up Austin Avenue.
New urbanism is not about dictating the height, style or function of buildings, but it does depend on a consistent and understandable edge at the street.
What about suburban development?
“Our goal is to build support for compact, high density neighborhoods supporting jobs, stores, cafes and theatres with parks, schools and residences,all accessible by sidewalks, bike trails, transit and walkable streets.”
Steve Sorrells, Chair
Traditional Neighborhood
Task Force |
In the post-World War II era, cities including Waco spread outward with strip shopping, malls, wider highways and housing tracts designed for people
with automobiles.
The suburban development model was based on the belief that separating uses was the way to go—retail over here, residential over there and industry someplace else.
The model was so successful, however, that today
you have to drive to almost every destination.
An unintended consequence of suburban
development is that streets—an important part of the public realm—do not feel like the pleasant, shared spaces they have historically been.
These and other challenges have attracted new urbanists to the suburbs, especially for infill projects, shopping center redevelopment and to transform existing commercial areas into town centers.
When new urbanism is applied to a greenfield project it may be called traditional neighborhood development.
The Congress of New Urbanism* defines traditional neighborhoods as including homes, stores, workplaces, schools, houses of worship and recreational areas—all within a quarter mile that for most people is a five-minute walk.
A traditional neighborhood development could be built in Waco’s growing Highway 84 corridor, on Elm Avenue in East Waco or between downtown and Baylor.
WHO SHOULD BE INTERESTED AND INVOLVED IN THE CHAMBER’S WORK IN THIS AREA?
Architects, planners, publishers, real estate agents and developers are already involved. “But anybody who cares about the health and vitality of Greater Waco’s cities, towns and neighborhoods is welcome," said Sorrells.
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*The Congress of New Urbanism was founded in 1993 by a group of enthusiastic architects. Today CNU has over 2,300 members in 20 countries and 49 states.
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