New Urbanism is a planning concept which seeks to redress the placeless-ness of conventional, post-war, American suburban development. It was conceived in the early 1990s by a small group of architects and planners from Florida and California including Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, the designers of Prospect. It employs many of the precepts of early 20th century American town planning, while addressing the dictates of early 21st century life. It is rapidly gaining favor among forward thinking designers, developers and elected officials. Its basic tenets are presented in the Charter of the New Urbanism, a document published in 1996 by the Congress for the New Urbanism, the national organization — 2,500 strong and counting -- that grew from the efforts and ideas of that early, visionary group.

In Prospect, the principles of New Urbanism are employed to create a safe, walkable, and close-knit but diverse community.

Its streets are laid out in a compact, interconnected network and link, at the borders of the development, with established city or county roadways. Right-of-way widths, building heights and setbacks, and mandatory architectural elements such as porches and stoops are all carefully calibrated to create inviting and varied public spaces of the streets themselves.

Prospect’s many parks too, are clearly formed public spaces, defined by the size, shape and disposition of the buildings bordering them. A variety of other public amenities such as a tot lot, a dog park, a swimming pool and a farmer’s market are proposed to promote neighborhood interaction. Garages are accessed from a system of rear alleys, which also accommodate garbage collection and recycling services.

Prospect is a mixed-use development with a variety of building and use types and a range of price levels.  In addition to detached, single-family houses, it incorporates town and courtyard houses, apartments, live-work units, and commercial retail, office and restaurant space. Accessory units above detached garages are encouraged, and can be used as guest or rental housing, or office space. This broad range of options will allow residents to live, work and shop in the same neighborhood, and to walk from one activity to the others. It also means that when a resident’s life circumstances change, with the arrival or departure of children to or from their household for instance, their housing type can change accordingly without the need to leave the community.

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