If Christmas is about believing, so are two fascinating new American towns I’ve seen this year.
One is Prairie Crossing, a settlement of some 400 traditionally designed homes and condos at a juncture of two rail commuter lines 45 miles north of Chicago. Prairie Crossing is proudly recreating pockets of the wildflower-dotted prairies that once thrived across Mid-America; simultaneously, with its easy rail connection to the Chicago Loop and O’Hare, it aims to be a national model of transit-oriented development.
Almost 1,000 miles southeast, on the banks of the Broad River near colonial Beaufort, S.C., the new Habersham development offers classic, porch-rich Southern architecture in a variety of houses, townhomes and condos. Habersham’s success in blending new construction into the semitropical Low Country setting -- marsh-lined water edges and great live oaks, bedecked with Spanish moss -- is close to breathtaking.
Both communities have roots in the New Urbanist movement of focused neighborhood development; famed architect Peter Calthorpe played a role in Prairie Crossing’s design while Andres Duany was Habersham’s planner. Houses are closer together, open and shared space more prevalent, the layouts walkable. Both are developing attractive town centers for shops and civic functions.
In an era of subdivision exclusivity -- Habersham is not far from Hilton Head, birthplace of U.S. gated communities -- both these new projects are designed with easy roadway access to their surrounding communities. Prairie Crossing established a K-8th grade public charter school; a third of the 360 students come from the community itself and the rest from surrounding areas through carpools and lots of biking. Habersham, in a county with South Carolina’s most extreme levels of wealth and poverty, is planning a charter school that would have noteworthy diversity of race and family incomes.
But it is how the communities are tied to the natural environment that strikes one the most. Prairie Crossing actually reclaimed lost nature as it brought back prairie grass to fields occupied for decades by conventional corn and soybean crops that depended on heavy pesticide use. Before, six species of birds were seen on the site; now there are 120. The reintroduced prairie grasses, their roots running as deep as 15 feet, now hold the soil better-- and with their constantly changing blooms and hues, add visual delight.
Habersham, like Prairie Crossing, carefully constructed a system of swales and ponds to slow down and filter rainwater before it flows into the adjoining marshes and river. Its roads follow old cattle paths; at several spots one has to steer around a grand old oak or other tree left standing dead center in the roadway. In a prior developers’ plan, rear yards of new homes would have occupied the land directly to the river; now the riverside features lovely walkways and roadways allowing grand views from the homes but keeping most of the riverbank and marshes open to all residents and visitors.
To assure views for everyone, Prairie Crossing built its houses -- of unassuming clapboard with typical Midwestern porches and steep roofs -- around common garden areas, and in one case a 22-acre manmade lake. All the buildings are constructed to high energy efficiency levels.
But Prairie Crossing’s most startling feature is its farm -- 50 acres, nestled in the community and producing, organically, beets to grapes, herbs to fresh eggs. With an on-site farmers market and one other outlet, the husband-wife farmer team avoids wholesale markets and grosses an amazing $14,000 to $15,000 per acre per year.
So who sparked these remarkable developments?
At Prairie Crossing it’s been Chicago lawyer and civic leader George Ranney as well as his wife, Victoria (Vicky) Post Ranney, a civic activist and author on city planning. The Ranneys live in an historic house near Prairie Crossing; Ranney in fact grew up a half mile from the site, which would have been filled with 3,000 standard tract homes, ruining its rural character, if a major lawsuit hadn’t stopped it.
Ranney’s uncle and aunt, the late printing firm executive Gaylord Donnelly and his wife Dorothy, acquired the site and turned to the Ranneys for a fresh approach. The Ranneys (he is also founder of Chicago’s leading regional civic group, Metropolis 2020), conceived Prairie Crossing.
Habersham is the dreamchild of Bob Turner, a New Urbanist developer -- and more. Turner earlier managed a high-risk renaissance of nearby Port Royal, S.C., an historic town that had fallen into serious disrepair. Working with a progressive mayor and town manager, major cleanup began, scores of buildings were bought and renovated. The town’s still a bit funky, but has block after block of renovated homes and a handsomely-designed new Post Office as a gathering spot.
By belief and action, the Ranneys and Turner provide a gift for us all -- evidence that America’s communities can be more social, more beautiful, more environmentally friendly than standard development, yet still work economically.
Comments may be addressed to npeirce@citistates.com
