TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN

As discussed earlier, the Urban group was tasked with evaluating various urban design scenarios in order to determine the optimum urban form for the Ichetucknee area. One of the design scenarios we chose to examine further was Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND). This design scenario has several variations like Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) or New Urbanism. The main idea behind TND is to try and recapture some of the character and community that existed in the older, traditional city neighborhoods that preceded WW II. TND communities are generally high-density neighborhoods with narrow streets and a wide variety of housing types and socioeconomic classes. These types of developments also have a variety of land uses, a mix of residential, commercial, and often office uses. In addition, there are also many positive characteristics that result from this type of development. The higher densities and mixed-use characteristics help to reduce automobile reliance. TND developments consume considerably less land than traditional development. This is because they accommodate the same population in a smaller area. Figure 1 (below) shows the prescribed size, shape, and land use distribution in a typical neighborhood type Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). Figure 2 shows the prescribed size, shape, and land use distribution in a typical commercial TOD. Notice that the commercial development has a commercial core in the center of town while the neighborhood development relies on outlying commercial developments to meet its commercial needs.

FIGURE 1. Neighborhood TOD

FIGURE 2. Commercial TOD