Mapleton Village: Utah County's First Traditional Neighborhood Development

Eric Fredericks • Sunday December 17, 2006

Miki Bringhurst of the Jack Johnson Company asked me if I would share some news about their new development with our readers. The development is called Mapleton Village and looks to be a new urbanist type of development. The town center type of development in the pictured plan looks to incorporate many of the good design features we promote here—buildings close to the street with small setbacks, compact and walkable design, and parks and open space.

I always want to be honest in my articles, and I do have some concern that some parts of the development are not walkable and might be a bit heavily focused on residential development. However, it’s very difficult to tell from these plans and judging by the contours, there are some steep slopes in the area. Certainly, we hope the project is very successful for Mapleton and the Jack Johnson company. There are many innovative and sustainable features to this development as evidenced in this press release:

PARK CITY, UTAH (November 23, 2006) – Jack Johnson Company, in conjunction with Presidio Capital LLC, is proud to announce Mapleton Village as one of Utah County’s new neighborhood additions, an impressive example of the increasing popularity of traditional neighborhood design in the United States.

Mapleton Village is a unique 672-acre development nestled among scrub oak at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Designed with traditional neighborhood principles, such as large front porches, walkable streets, classic architecture, and multiple common open space areas, Mapleton Village seeks to become the premier destination for families in Utah County.

“We appreciate Mapleton’s City Council and Planning Commission embracing this project to approve the first traditional neighborhood design for Utah County. This development will be an excellent and unique addition to our state,� notes Jack Johnson, president of Jack Johnson Company. “Residents will be proud to call Mapleton Village home.�

A significant portion of the Mapleton Village site will be preserved as usable open space including Crowd Canyon and Maple Mountain, as well as acres of natural habitat. Additionally, ponds, play fields, common gardens, and miles of integrated trails will be key features of the project. Formal gardens, playgrounds, pocket parks and a village green will complement the Mapleton Village open space. As a pedestrian-friendly environment, Mapleton Village will enable residents to hike the canyon trails or play with their children at the neighborhood playing field without ever getting in their cars.

“Mapleton Village is in a pristine location at the foot of Crowd Canyon, directly abutting the Uinta National Forest. Families will greatly appreciate the tremendous amount of recreational offerings in the Mapleton neighborhood and their accessibility to their homes,� states Todd Ford, Jack Johnson Company’s project director for Mapleton Village. “Planning a progressive neighborhood with an environmentally sustainable design will benefit Utahans. We are pleased to bring Mapleton Village’s traditional neighborhood design to Utah County.�

Mapleton Village will offer a wide variety of unit types, including town homes, village homes and large estate homes with panoramic views of Utah County. This variety among the 565 units will help to create a true sense of community among residents. Additionally, Mapleton Village promises to be a healthy and environment-friendly community using sustainable development practices, Energy Starâ„¢ rated homes, recycled irrigation water, and native vegetation and landscaping.

Jack Evans, Managing Director of Presidio Capital LLC, states, “We hired Jack Johnson Company because of their long and successful track record of creating distinctive destinations. At Mapleton Village, they have lived up to that reputation and more.�

Jack Johnson Company is a destination design firm, with a primary focus on residential communities and recreational resorts. Services include land planning, architecture, civil engineering, surveying, project management, governmental processing, and more. Jack Johnson Company has been a key player in designing world destinations for over 30 years, with offices in Park City, Utah; Atlanta, Georgia; Boise, Idaho; and Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information on Jack Johnson Company, please contact Courtney Stern, Marketing Manager, or visit their Web site at www.jackjohnson.com. For more information on Mapleton Village, please contact Todd Ford, Project Director.

Contact: Courtney Stern/Todd Ford
Jack Johnson Company
435.645.9000

 

Category: New Urbanism •• Region: Utah •• comments

CNN Highlights Seven New Urbanist Communities

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday September 20, 2005

New urbanism is not the most popular concept when it comes to community design. But one positive that comes out of new urbanist design is that they are generally very walkable places. A recent article on CNN highlights seven “retro” new urbanist communities around the country, and most of them will be very familiar to those with a planning background. A quote by David Rusk hits a major problem with new urbanism: “It often lacks a social justice, a social opportunity component,” he said in the article. “There’s almost a complete absence of any economic diversity” (He is an excellent speaker, by the way).

So, of course, the next question is, what is my take on new urbanism? Well, it certainly beats the trend of the last few decades, or “new suburbanism.” But as mentioned in this article, many of these communities are over-planned, meaning they are planned down to the very last detail. Real communities do not have this. Real communities thrive on spontenaiety. Would you see so-called bohemians that you might find on winding down Haight Street in San Francisco on the same streets in these master-planned communities? I highly doubt it. Unless there is flexibility involved. There is a lot of NIMBY-ism (Not In My BackYard) out there, and certainly I do not enjoy everything flexibility has to offer, but there is enjoyment in surprises of what might lie ahead on the next block. Almost anyone would have to admit, it is more interesting to walk through an older neighborhood with a typical grid pattern than a new curvy-road sameness suburban sprawl subdivision. And why? Because it is different, it is unique, it does not all look the same.

Some people fear the unknown. But for the rest of us that do not, we need to stop development from becoming all too familiar. Not just like every other block in any town in America. If new urbanism helps combat this sameness, then I am all for it.

 

Category: New Urbanism •• Region: United States •• Comments

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