All the illegals will feel right at home.
Posted on 01/07/2006 1:10:34 AM PST by Lorianne
The Las Vegas Valley is about to become home to a master-planned community reminiscent of a time before World War II.
Grading is scheduled to start in Henderson this month on Inspirada, a community offering dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods interconnected with narrow streets, village squares, parks and open space.
The venture will be one of the nation's largest "new urbanism" communities, spread across nearly 2,000 acres and featuring 11,500 residences.
Focus Property Group, the master developer for a partnership of seven home builders, bought the site in a June 2004 federal auction for $557 million, double the appraised value. The site is west of Sun City Anthem and south of Henderson Executive Airport.
Construction is expected to begin by summer, and the first homes should be ready for occupancy by the end of 2006 or early 2007, said Larry Bross, executive vice president of development for Focus.
The development will feature seven villages of 200 to 250 acres. Each will contain at least four mini-neighborhoods, known as pods, of 20 to 60 acres. Each pod will be built around parks and village squares.
At the core of the master plan is a 300-acre Town Center, expected to include a resort casino, retail, possibly high-rise office buildings and as many as 3,000 dwellings, including mid-rise, condos, apartments and town homes. No deal is in place a with any casino operator, Bross said.
The development will have no gated communities and few walls. Instead, it will aspire to an open feel with trails and bike paths meandering throughout. It will include three community parks with athletic fields and 10 neighborhood parks. A total of 322 acres will be for recreational use.
"New urbanism has caught on fire throughout the nation, and this project in Henderson will be a major draw on the West Coast," Bross said.
The concept, made popular in Florida in the late 1980s, is catching on nationally as buyers seek a sense of small town community as an alternative to typical suburban sprawl, said Steve Filmanowicz, spokesman for the Congress For the New Urbanism, a national organization devoted to helping cities and developers further the new urbanism concept.
New urbanism may turn planning and zoning conventions upside down. A conventional suburban development, for example, cannot have as many varied uses near each other, Filmanowicz said. Residential areas must be separated from places people shop and work, where children attend school and play soccer. New urbanism communities aspire to invite people out of their cars and give them the handy access to shopping, schools and other elements of small towns of the past.
"There is a real yearning for this," Filmanowicz said. "They want it to feel like a town with a Main Street."
Not everyone prefers this type of intimate lifestyle, but home buyers will now have it as a choice, Henderson officials said. A national survey found that about 30 percent of buyers prefer a new urbanism development, according to Filmanowicz's organization.
The houses will vary in size, prices and architecture. Styles will include carriage homes above detached or semi-detached garages; estate homes on large lots; mansion homes that combine up to six residences within a single structure; village homes with alley-access; garage garden homes that face each other across a courtyard; and live/work units featuring office and retail space on the first floor and living quarters on the second.
Home prices could range from $300,000 to $700,000 Bross said.
Henderson Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said she is excited about having the new urbanism alternative available to buyers.
"This is not Henderson as we have known it,"she said, noting that this style of dense development results, in part, from steep prices for land.
Bristol Ellington, Henderson's community development director, said he believes "planning professionals from across the country are going to be coming here to see this project."
Inspirada's developer will be responsible for constructing parks, trails, open space and recreational amenities. It will also build a fire station and provide space for a temporary community policing center until a police station is built. The developer will donate land for that structure as well as for four elementary schools and a middle school.
The land is divided among the homebuilders, of which KB Home has the biggest percentage at 48.8 percent. Focus has 15.5 percent; followed by Toll Brothers, 10.5 percent; Pardee Homes, 9.9 percent; Woodside 8.1 percent; Kimball Hill Homes, 6.6 percent; Meritage Homes, 3.5 percent, and Beazer Homes, 2.5 percent.
All the illegals will feel right at home.
as long it recieves no subsidy its OK by me
Perhaps not terribly relevant to the story but interesting nonetheless is that Henderson Nevada near Las Vegas was the site of the immense Pacific Engineering & Production Co. of Nevada (PEPCON) rocket fuel (ammonium perchlorate) chemical plant explosion in 1988 that killed two and injured over three hundred people.
***The Las Vegas Valley is about to become home to a master-planned community reminiscent of a time before World War II. ***
NO! Before WW II, space was allowed for CHURCHES. There were back yards and front lawns, and breathing spaces.
What a crock! These people are stealing the American heritage to promote DENSE population, and to make themselves multi-millionaires. They're trying to turn America into overcrowded Europe.
By the way, before WW II, it was the Depression era, and these builders are trying to re-create it? Sounds to me as though the Depression era was a better time to live than in this hive of tiny living spaces.
Oh, hot diggety dog.
This sounds like the Senior Assisted Living Center - living areas closely grouped for increased sociability; a central courtyard which boasts of trees, benches and real grass; an on-site pharmacy for your most personal health needs and even a gift shop and floral center to satisfiy your wild shopping desires. It's Paradise - and so perfectly planned!
Nobody is illegal - they are just "new Americans".
| We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture. Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende. For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America. George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000. |
Pod people being delivered to new neighborhood.
I Metacrawlered this, and from the first link:
"Agenda 21, the UN blueprint for global transformation, sounds good to many well meaning people. Drafted for the purpose of creating "sustainable societies", it has been welcomed by nations around the world. Political, cultural, and media leaders have embraced its alluring visions of social justice and a healthy planet. They hide the lies behind its doomsday scenarios and fraudulent science. Relatively few consider the contrary facts and colossal costs."
Yep, just another Lib-Pardise.
Sounds like an ideal breed ground for gangs.
This has worked well at Seaside in NW Florida.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.