A fundamental premise of New Urbanism is that if streets, sidewalks, and other public and semipublic spaces are laid out properly, community life will tend to flourish. But a growing number of new urbanists argue that it’s not enough to get the physical design right. What’s also needed is community institutions — particularly nonprofit organizations that will sponsor activities and enrich local life.
Which nonprofit organizations might serve those purposes? Not homeowners’ associations, many insist. It’s a mistake to rely on homeowners’ associations to bring the residents into satisfying contact with one another, say longtime new urbanist professionals such as Doris Goldstein.
Homeowners’ associations “focus on private property rights,” and tend to foster exclusivity, said Goldstein, a Jacksonville lawyer who has drawn up legal documents for new urban developments since 1986. Homeowners’ associations “want to save money” and are reluctant to sponsor many activities, Goldstein told a panel discussion on community-building during the CNU annual conference in June in Providence, Rhode Island. “They don’t want mess. They’re not progressive. They want the status quo. They want to keep things simple.”
Goldstein and others said the responsibility for generating community activity — and perhaps even for keeping the development’s original goals alive — should be assigned to some other organization, preferably a nonprofit that can qualify for federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Four developments in which nonprofits have been formed to do that are:
• East Beach, a 100-acre development in Norfolk, Virginia, where the East Beach Foundation aims to help organize house concerts, lecture series, and other activities.
• Highland Park, an approximately 350-acre development near Tampa in northwest Hillsborough County, Florida, where the Foundation for a Better Place seeks to nurture “social engagement and social capital,” according to Anne-Marie Lenton, vice president of A Better Place Group, Highland Park’s developer.
• I’On, a 243-acre development in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where The I’On Trust, was, the development’s website says, “born of a desire to advance cultural and civic life in the East Cooper area of Charleston.”
• Seaside, Florida, where in 1982 Robert Davis founded the first such organization in a new urbanist development: the Seaside Institute.
THE LIMITATIONS OF DESIGN
During the CNU session, sociologist David Brain said the new urbanist ideal of community revolves around “solidarity based on a common feeling, a sense of personal connection, and emotional depth.” Community can be encouraged by building homes close together, installing extensively interconnected networks of streets, and creating appealing public spaces where people come together. But buildings and layouts cannot guarantee that community ties will remain strong, Brain and other panelists said.
Partly for that reason, last January the Seaside Institute established the New Institutes Program (NIP), which helps new urbanist developers start nonprofit organizations that can foster community activity and idealism. “We consult with new urbanist communities on how to establish nonprofits,” said Seaside Institute executive director, Phyllis Bleiweis. “We try to help them find a niche and a mission, learn how to organize, how to fund-raise, how to structure their board.”
NIP, which charges a fee for its service, has helped the East Beach Company, in Norfolk, organize the East Beach Foundation, and has talked with developers elsewhere about guiding them through similar undertakings. Rock Bell, general manager of East Beach Company, said that in his development the process involved reaching out to various groups of people, determining “what the climate is for nonprofit organizations … and trying to tailor the nonprofit or foundation to the needs of the neighborhood.”
“You’ve got to find out what turns on your particular residents,” Bell said. “There’s not one correct answer to doing this.” At East Beach, where 70 of an eventual 700 housing units are occupied, some of the most effective events for getting neighbors involved are house concerts, where “you bring in a regionally known singer — one or two or three of them — and people bring a covered dish,” Bell said. Such activities help residents to get to know one another and think as a community. “For Labor Day, we’re having a steel drum concert on the beach, a sand castle contest, and other events,” Bell said.
NIP encouraged the foundation to provide activities related to the East Beach’s setting on Chesapeake Bay. Residents would enjoy “water activities, what the sea means, educational programs,” Bleiweis suggested.
NIP has been collaborating with consultants from the Atlanta-based Tomlinson-Graham Group to offer the community-building service. John Graham at Tomlinson-Graham says his firm has also been working, independent of NIP, as community cultural planning consultants for new urban developments such as Serenbe in Palmetto, Georgia, and East Bay, near Panama City, Florida. The goal, Graham said, is to construct a “civic infrastructure” — “public places and activities for civic participation, enjoyment, education, and enlightenment.”
At I’On, The I’On Trust helps enliven its community with band concerts, outdoor movies, poetry readings, educational forums, and other activities, according to Ann Register, the trust’s executive director. “It is a way to connect members with one another.”
“One of the responsibilities of an institute is to make sure the vision the town founder has for the place isn’t lost over time,” Graham observes. “Future residents should understand what it means to live here.” Ironically, Seaside, the oldest example of a new urbanist community, is one place where the aim of the local institute has shifted. Davis founded the Seaside Institute only a year after starting his resort development on the Florida Panhandle, but the institute no longer concentrates largely on events for local residents. Since 1998 the institute has shifted to working mostly on New Urbanism promotion and education nationwide, Bleiweis reports. There is a more locally-oriented organization, the Seaside Community Association, but Bleiweis says it is currently “in a hiatus.”
However, Seaside has other institutions that are active locally, including a charter school, a chapel, and a repertory theater. A number of new urbanist developers across the US have provided sites for Montessori schools, YMCAs, or Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs — nonprofit institutions that spark activity and involvement.
FINDING A REVENUE SOURCE
Because a community-based institute needs a source of revenue, many developers insert a funding mechanism — most often a property transfer fee — into the homeowners’ association’s covenants, conditions, and restrictions. The I’On Trust gets one-tenth of 1 percent of the proceeds of every lot or house sale; that will generate roughly $50,000 of the Trust’s $168,000 budget this year. Other revenue sources are family memberships, corporate memberships, corporate sponsorships, and sales of tickets to some events. At Highland Park, the Foundation for a Better Place gets three-quarters of 1 percent of each house sale after the initial sale by the builder. At East Beach, the fee was set at one-tenth of 1 percent, but Bell says it’s insufficient, and he is now trying to raise it to a full 1 percent.
It’s difficult to establish a guaranteed revenue source once people have already moved in. Consequently, organizers urge developers to think about establishing an institute and its dedicated source of funds right away. “The sooner you start, the better off you’ll be in the long run,” Bleiweis said. “What we’ve discovered is that the buyers want to know what you’re going to do with it [the fee revenue],” Graham said. “So it’s important to have a clear vision of what the nonprofit is going to do.” The developer and the sales staff must be prepared to tell potential buyers what programs the institute will provide.
At I’On, developer Vince Graham established the Trust because he expected the homeowners’ association to generate conflict through its customary emphasis on enforcing rules, Register said. “He didn’t want neighbors who might be unhappy about some hardscape issue to have that carry over to cultural activities.” It seemed better to separate the two responsibilities entirely.
Nonetheless, residents of some communities seem quite happy with homeowners’ associations’ sponsorship of activities. At Harbor Town in Memphis, longtime resident Corky Neale says the 18-year-old development continues to have a very neighborly spirit. “There’s been a lot of staying power,” he observes. The Harbor Town Community Association, which represents property owners and is supported by assessments on their land and buildings, manages groundskeeping, trash collection, and other maintenance but also has a social agenda — sponsoring or publicizing street parties, foot races, dog shows, and other events. “I think it still works very well,” Neale said.
John Anderson of New Urban Builders in Chico, California, doubts that a small TND needs an institute focused solely on its own turf. Anderson said he and his partner, Tom DiGiovanni, looked at the idea for their Meriam Park development in Chico last year but they “remain skeptical about the mechanics of a community foundation.” Anderson added, “I think the social and civic habits needed for a good place need a more substantial foundation than an association or foundation formed at the 200-acre project scale.”
If Anderson and DiGiovanni eventually establish a nonprofit, “we will broaden our efforts and launch a group that will look to the civic life of the entire city of Chico,” Anderson said. “Meriam Park will be a vital place in the long term if the residents and business people living and working there are committed to the whole town, not just the part within a five-minute walk.”
John Graham said some community institutes or foundations do in fact look beyond their borders. “Both Serenbe and East Bay espouse a commitment to the surrounding community,” he says.
Similarly, in the Tampa area, the Foundation for a Better Place will draw revenue from — and provide activities in — not only the fairly upscale, suburban Highland Park but also a 1,900-unit development in a distressed area in Tampa Heights, not far from downtown Tampa. The Foundation may support after-school programs for children and the operation and maintenance of low-income housing in areas beyond either of those developments; the Foundation is chartered to operate anywhere it chooses.
Nonprofit organizations “carry the vision of what you want your community to be,” Bleiweis told the audience in Providence. “They can be the communicator [between developers and residents]. They can mediate and solve problems. They create philanthropy. They create interests and programming. They can test what residents want and are able to afford.” Her succinct advice: “Start a nonprofit as soon as possible.”
This article is available in the September 2006 issue of New Urban News, along with images and many more articles not available online. Subscribe or order the individual issue. |
Courtesy of Serenbe