Village On The Twelve

The underpinnings of any great neighbourhood is the Vision that not only first created it; but is massaged and defended through to the building stage. For us, much of the vision for Village on the Twelve is demonstrated in the principles of the New Urbanism. Having just returned from Philadelphia for CNU XV - the Congress of New Urbanism - we feel a renewed sense of confidence in our neighbourhood’s vision.

The Congress, established only 15 years ago, serves to offer an alternative land development model to one that has been in place for over fifty years - the origins of suburban sprawl. By its very nature, land development has a significant impact on our daily lives, whether we are consciously aware or not. Everyday actions like: where we work or shop, how we get to those places, to the use of our finite natural resources like fossil fuels are affected by the arrangement of land uses.

At the Village, we (the designers) use these same principles to design neighbourhoods that are within walking distance to daily needs. Huntington Square Plaza is but a short walk from the Village along the Merritt Trail to Martindale and Erion Roads. There you will find everyday needs like a Medical Walk-in Clinic, a veterinarian, a bank, a drug store, 2 restaurants and a convenience store that offers fresh flowers, movie rentals and dry cleaning. All of these everyday conveniences are less than a 5 minute walk away.

The New Urbanism philosophy is considered to be a model of future sustainability practices in land development and, the design of the Village makes good use of valuable land resources, and municipal servicing, that is less expensive for municipalities and taxpayers alike.  I goes without saying that the natural environment wins as well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under New Urbanism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.