Houses, shops, and shops combined with housing are part of the futuristic plan designed by a team of professional town planners from Miami for an 80-acre parcel south of Longmont.

A former tree farm, the property is known as Burlington Village and is located at the south west corner of Highway 287 and Pike Road.

Andres Duany, principal of DPZ Architects and Town Planners of Miami presented the results of a six-day effort Jan. 18 to about 400 townspeople and builders who jammed the Dickens Opera House in Longmont.

DPZ Architects is known for espousing the ideals of traditional towns like those built in America before World War 11. To Duany, neighborhood streetscapes and public spaces are as important as the homes.

After almost a week in Longmont, Duany announced, "Longmont is poised between traditional urbanism and suburban sprawl. This is a place clearly going the wrong way, but it's not too late."

In an opening day speech, he advocated a return to a less car-oriented lifestyle. He praised the location of alleys and garages in the back of houses, prominent porches, sidewalks and treelined avenues. Duany also likes mixing modest commercial and residential elements to cut down on car trips.

His idea is to create compact villages, packed with amenities, with smaller houses and streets to attack the spread of urban sprawl and landscapes dominated by freeways.

The DPZ designers worked over the weekend in Longmont, taking photographs, studying the site, and making drawings. The preliminary results were unveiled to the public on Tuesday.

The final plans for the 80 acres will be refined and presented as part of an application for annexation to the city of Longmont within a few months.

Developer Kiki Wallace paid for the design project out of his own pocket and the city is not obligated to accept the architect's plan.

Some of the other elements of the Burlington Village concept are:

• A commercial street that includes studio and work space for work-at-home entrepreneurs. Shops are on the ground level and apartments on the second and third levels.
• A community social center that includes a diner, corner store, dry cleaner, gym, police station and daycare center. The purpose is "to bring people out of their houses and meet each other, " Duany said. This will not make a profit, but will pay for itself.
• The average lot would be 24 feet wide (about the length of two cars), and the development would accommodate about 440 homes or 5.5 units per acre on 80 acres.
• Streets would be arranged in one of three possible grid plans.
• The former Longmont public library building could be moved to the site for a public gathering place.