Will energy-conserving neighborhoods attract suburbanites?

Trend: Energy-efficient neighborhoods could reduce demand for traditional homes in the suburbs.

New Urbanism is one example of neighborhood planning that seek to reduce suburban sprawl and reduce the need for driving. Below are 13 elements of New Urbanism.

Link: New Urbanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at this center.
2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly 1/4 mile or 1,320 feet (0.4 km).
3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments — so that younger and older people, singles, and families, the poor, and the wealthy may find places to live.
4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, an office or craft workshop).
6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home.
7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling — not more than a tenth of a mile away.
8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.
13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.

Comments

[green]

of course new urbanism.greenneighborhood,smart growth will all attract
new residential consumers. this is basic shit..at 4 dollars a gallon for gas what idiot is going to drive any lenght to a job that will eventually be shipped over seas?
all convential housing will fall in value.all homes outside the core will fall in value and consumers will pay a premenium for green housing.
as gas,electric and now water costs will skyrocket.
the green expert told the nahb this more than 8 yrs ago of cousre these idiots went on to build 7 million homes that fall in value every day. and now the nahb wants a tax subsidy to bail them out when homehowners are loosing everyhthing they own under the bush "ownership society".
and lets review the next point.. under the clinton regime there was over a
trillion dollars in home equity. now less than 8 yrs later the fed loaned 200+ billion dollars to banks who kept the money to shore up their balance sheets. and congress will pass a 300 billion dollar mortgage passage..probably under the new appointed prex obama.

thsi means the gov has spent 50 cents on the dollar to bail out all banls and home owners. what thsi show us all that a home is now useless to the american consumer.what idiot is going to own an asset that will fall in value every day?