298 Gathering the pieces
people. Edges of communities are where big solutions, especially greenspace
benefits, can often be implemented.
Abroader spatial view shows Boulder in a sea of coalescing communities
characterized by rapidly expanding sprawl. A ‘‘green net” with greenspace cor-
ridors around town or municipality borders was proposed for an area where
many expanding communities were threatening to coalesce (Chapter 10 ;Forman
2004a). The Boulder greenbelt would be an extreme example, because of its
width, of a municipality ringed by a greenspace corridor. Ringing the local
communities in Denver’s region with greenspace corridors or thin greenbelts
would create a broad-scale green net that provides important value -- local recre-
ation, nature protection, local walking trails, regional trails, connectivity for
wildlife, and helping to maintain the identity and distinctiveness of each com-
munity. Regional initiatives could center around Denver, or say a county (e.g.,
planning begun in 1978), or even the surrounding local communities that are
themost relevant to Boulder, an approach considered in the suburban town case
below.Planned town
Withroots in nineteenth-century utopian communities and 1960s--1970s
planned communities, the idea of planned towns grows as an alternative to new
sprawl in the USA. Generally referred to as ‘‘new urbanism” (or neo-traditional
town planning in Britain), the development is not without its critics, who some-
times harshly note that overall it is neither new nor urban, emphasizes real-
estate development for profit, relies heavily on private cars, produces pseudo-
‘‘ t heme park s,” is akin to a cult, and has confused ecology with green marketing.
Nevertheless, the keyquestionishowaplanned towncompares with the
five basic alternatives: (1) values of the preceding land; (2) values of the land
enhanced without a new community; (3) a sprawl community of the same area;
(4) a sprawl community holding the same number of people as the planned town;
and (5) a community planned so that both people and nature thrive long term. A
list of pros and cons for each of the six options should be asine qua non.Although
theplanned-town idea has been applied to a neighborhood within a city, subur-
ban community in the metro-area portion of a small city (e.g., Davis, California),
and a master-planned housing-development community (Vernez Moudon1989),
here we consider the typical case of a new town in the urban-region ring.
Almost all the planned towns emphasize: reduced vehicle use; pedestrian-scale
walkability; local recreation; water as an amenity, and often a part of stormwa-
termanagement; small house lots with little lawn; houses close together, some-
times with many front porches; variable-unit townhouses and apartments; small
or few outdoor private spaces; slightly narrow streets; unobtrusive garages often