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But zoning posed challenges, and the Close family — the donors behind Clear Springs and Baxter — stipulated that half of the area remain green space, which made the development more costly.

Construction of housing started in 1998. The retail areas were developed in 2003 — at first built speculatively by the developer — after the community had reached a certain level of population density. The final phase of development recently began, with construction of the last 400 homes to add to the existing 1,000.

Robusto has lived and worked in Baxter for seven years. "It's nice. Everything is here," she says. "You don't have to leave the bubble." She adds that about 60 percent of the people who work in her Baxter office also live in Baxter.

Baxter Village seems to exemplify the best of New Urban design at work, with a practical, livable context that includes daycare, a school, a library, a YMCA, restaurants, shops, a grocery and a vibrant main street.

"It's not uncommon to meet people whose parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and cousins move to Baxter to be near family.," says Robusto. "I'm biased," she admits, "but there's nothing like it around."

A high percentage of residents move up or down in the same neighborhood, and the Village created for-sale signs that read, 'We're moving out, but we're staying in Baxter.'"

"A lot of criticism of the New Urban projects is that they're great, but you have to be making six-figure salaries to live there," says Rob Robinson, chairman of UDA and designer of the community. "Baxter gets high marks for being affordable. It feels real, not pretentious."

Robinson says the idea behind Baxter was "to create a core in the residential neighborhood to give it a bigger sense of place, and let it grow into a town, rather than create a massive thing that developed all at once."

"At its core, the sustainability is what attracts people," Robinson asserts. "It's a lot more convenient, healthier, and more socially intensive, so it attracts a different kind of civic engagement."

Charlotte's Future

While there's much to be done in coordinating growth between the City of Charlotte and other municipal and county governments, New Urbanist design principles have made their mark here. "It's amazing how mixed-use has become pretty standard," says Terry Shook, calling Charlotte "a good example of New Urbanism."

New Urban design is popping up in the upscale Southpark area and throughout much of Charlotte, replacing the suburban design model. Both Shook and Robinson have also played instrumental roles in bringing mixed-use, historic preservation, mixed-income housing, and other New Urbanist principles into the highly successful revitalization of Charlotte's first and fourth wards uptown.

"We've embraced the principles of New Urbanism — which is actually not much different than the urban planning of the '20s and '30s — in our mixed-use development principles," says Dan Thilo, urban design program manager for the City of Charlotte. "I think these principles are the key, though they're not really new."

"New Urbanism by its very nature is sustainable," Shook says. "In some new places we're blending the best practices of New Urbanism within a framework of anticipatory design. We'll set it up where we'll use technologies available now for energy and sustainability and set up the community for the ones on the horizon so they can be plugged in when they mature and the market responds."

Some are pushing for sustainable community design beyond the standard framework of New Urbanism. In his 2008 book Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature, Douglas Farr pushes for the principles of New Urbanism to be coupled with even higher environmental performance, in the broadest sense, of buildings and infrastructure.

Charlotte still faces challenges. "I'm very optimistic that Charlotte could truly be the city of the 21st century," says Tom Low, director of town planning for Duany Plater-Zyberk's Charlotte office. "However, it must accomplish one important thing that Atlanta and Washington, D.C. blew, and that is take the beltway and turn it into a positive."

The I-485 beltway around Charlotte is just nearing completion. At each step of its growth, the surrounding areas have been developed.

"If the development industry could shift its development operating system away from sprawl, towards New Urban principles, and create new towns and villages set in open space," Low remarks, "the whole region could become a destination to attract people to live here.”

With the success of places like Birkdale and Baxter Village, and the demand for New Urbanist communities on the rise, perhaps real estate developers will sit up and take notice.

Debra Moffitt writes about architecture, lifestyle, and design from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lugano, Switzerland.

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Baxter Village is a mix of new and renovated buildings of several scales. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image Urban Design Associates developed a book of community patterns to help developers and residents understand the Baxter Village master plan. Image: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The Urban Design Associates community pattern book suggests stylistic and material options indended to create the desired uniformity at Baxter Village. Image: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image In an attempt to attract more residents to Vermillion, North Carolina — a New Urbanist development designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk — developers have shifted from the original dense row house motif toward larger, more traditional suburban modes. 14_Vermillion photo close.jpg Extra Large Image Charlotte's first ward, located east of the downtown core, is being redeveloped following New Urban principles. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image Master plan for the first ward of Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Charlotte's first ward before the recent redevelopment. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image Previously vacant fields in Charlotte's first ward are now part of a New Urbanist development. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Design Associates Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.