Seven pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods in plan

Lynn Doan

Monday, July 19, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

A 1,940-acre plot in west Henderson will yield 14,500 houses, condos and apartments, said a town planner who fathered the national movement toward denser, more pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

Andres Duany, a co-designer of those types of neighborhoods in the Florida towns of Seaside and Celebration, said Wednesday that the land bought by Focus Property Group for $557 million in June will be transformed into seven neighborhoods surrounding a single town center. The compact housing units, ranging from apartments atop shops to multiple-story, single-family houses, will emphasize roof decks and shaded galleries.

"It's so efficient that many of these single-story units can still add one more room to go up like a kind of belvedere where you can actually see the mountains ...or you could have a roof deck, what they call in Arizona a margarita deck, where you can go up and drink or something," Duany said Wednesday at the closing of a week-long collaboration between Henderson officials and Focus developers.

Duany, who was hired by Focus to design the layout of the land, said the communities would be geared toward pedestrian safety for children in particular. After working closely with public works officials and the city's fire department, Duany said they will construct streets that would purposely slow traffic on neighborhood and town center streets.

Duany said that instead of front lawns, housing lots would make room for more manageable, smaller courtyards. For example, on a 20-foot-wide house lot, he said a front lawn would be replaced with a courtyard in the front of the house, a private courtyard on the side, and a grassy courtyard in the back.

His plans also call for hidden parking lot structures in the back and side alleys of houses. Without cars parked in the front, housees would look more attractive, he said.

"The problem with cars is that most people don't pull them into their garages," he said. "It looks so slummy when the cars aren't pulled in."

Focus executive director John Ritter said Duany's design does not mean buildings will be crammed next to each other. In fact, the density of the property would be less than one of the group's latest projects, Providence, a 1,200-acre development west of Hualapai Way in the northwest valley.

Overall"density is really not that different than our other developments," Ritter said. "Really what you have is more open space, and then the areas that are developed are developed more densely."

Duany has been meeting with city officials to discuss whether the characteristics of these traditional neighborhoods, which have been dubbed "new urbanism," would be plausible in Henderson.

City Councilman Andy Hafen, who has regularly attended the discussions, said it was about time that the Las Vegas Valley embraced new urbanism.

"As they get closer to what is actually going to happen, I'm sure there will be a lot more input," said Hafen. "Overall, this is a great concept. I don't want to use a cliche, but it is cutting edge."

Public meetings to provide feedback on Duany's concept will be scheduled next, although the gatherings have yet to be scheduled, Focus spokeswoman Lisa Mannino said.