Future Fenway Design Symposium
ELEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING
The moral, economic, and environmental benefits of traditional urban neighborhoods are greatly influenced by certain physical and organizational characteristics. Good neighborhoods share most or all of the following eleven features, which we regard as guiding principles for good neighborhood design.
- A good neighborhood has a discernible center, usually a public square and / or a main street, typically bordered by civic buildings, shops, and/or residences. A transit stop (usually train and/or bus) should be located in or along this center, connected to other neighborhood centers generally not less than one-half mile nor more than one mile away.
- A good neighborhood has a more or less discernible edge where the neighborhood ends and another neighborhood or a public park or the rural landscape begins.
- A good neighborhood is pedestrian friendly, and accommodates not only automobile drivers but also those who choose to walk or who are unable to drive. Most of the residences in the neighborhood are within a five-to-ten minute (one-quarter to one-half mile) walk of the neighborhood center.
- A good neighborhood has a variety of dwelling types. These usually take the form of houses, row-houses, flats, apartment buildings, coach houses, and flats-above-stores, so that the young and the old, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy, can all find places to live. Small ancillary buildings are typically permitted and encouraged within the backyard of each lot. In addition to parking, this small building may be used as one rental unit of housing or as a place to work.
- A good neighborhood has stores and offices located at and/or near its centers, and along the primary streets that connect neighborhood centers. The stores should be sufficiently varied to supply the weekly needs of a household.
- A good neighborhood has an elementary school to which most young children can walk. This walking distance should not be greater than one mile.
- A good neighborhood has access to public parks and other recreation facilities within and beyond its edge.
- A good neighborhood has small blocks with a network of through streets. This network would include major and minor streets, commercial and residential streets, arterial and local streets; but is emphatically not a system of feeder roads and dead end cul de sacs. This network provides multiple routes to various city destinations, and helps disperse traffic congestion. Streets within the neighborhood have curbs and sidewalks, are relatively narrow, and are lined with trees. This slows down traffic and creates an environment better suited for both pedestrians and cars.
- A good neighborhood places its buildings close to the street. This creates a strong sense of the neighborhood's center and streets as places, and of the neighborhood itself as a place.
- A good neighborhood utilizes its streets for parking. Parking lots and garages rarely if ever front the streets, and are relegated to the rear of buildings and accessed by alleys.
- A good neighborhood reserves prominent sites for civic buildings and community monuments. Buildings for education, religion, culture, sport, and government either terminate street vistas or front town centers.
Future Fenway Design Symposium
- has a discernible center,
- has a more or less discernible edge,
- is pedestrian friendly,
- has a variety of dwelling types
- has stores and offices located at and/or near its centers
- has an elementary school to which most young children can walk
- has access to public parks
- has small blocks with a network of through streets.
- places its buildings close to the street.
- utilizes its streets for parking
- reserves prominent sites for civic buildings and community monuments.
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