Mixing is different in military New Urbanism

The development of housing and shops at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia reveals some of the differences between how New Urbanism operates in a civilian setting and how it works on military bases. Herryford Village, the first completed portion of a new urbanist development at the Army post about 15 miles south of the Pentagon, won a Charter Award this spring from the Congress for the New Urbanism.
“The advantage [of working with the military] is an approval process that is considerably more rational and predictable,” says Neal Payton, a principal at Torti Gallas & Partners, which has planned and designed a series of pedestrian-scale neighborhoods now being built for Army families at Fort Belvoir by the private developer Clark Pinnacle. “You have to make the case, just as you do in the private sector,” he says. “If it’s rational, it gets done” — unlike civilian development, where opponents can derail a project even if their arguments aren’t logical.
Payton thinks “the idea of community and of creating a spatial envelope within which community can be supported is probably more understood on a military base” than in the civilian environment. Spouses of soldiers “are often very young, often 21 years old,” Payton says. “They’re on a base and they don’t know anybody.” Placing houses close together around small greens, some of which contain children’s play areas, makes it easy for the families to strike up friendships, he says. These connections become especially important, he says, when soldiers are deployed overseas, leaving their spouses and children back at the post, in need of “the support mechanism that comes from a strong sense of community.”
“The concept of a row of houses with open areas and common play areas gives you a community feeling, a homey feeling almost,” says Sgt. First Class Chris Woolley, who lives with his wife and three children in a new four-bedroom, 2,300 sq. ft. detached house. “Located within each housing area is a community center that has a front room with a fireplace, tables, and sofas,” Sgt. Woolley notes. Spouses can walk to it for meetings of “family readiness [social support] groups” and other functions.
    A main street group of small shops — 14,600 sq. ft. in five brick buildings — has been constructed within walking distance of many homes. Above the shops are 25 two-story apartments of about 2,000 square feet each, plus rear decks. Mixed development “has been a tremendous success,” Casey Nolan, project director for Clark Pinnacle, says, pointing out that the apartments “were leased within two weeks. Families are happy with them.” Some of the soldiers who choose to live there have children; others don’t.
Although mixing of age and economic groups is often a goal of civilian New Urbanism, the military adheres to what Payton calls “a strong tradition of separation by rank,” so at Belvoir “there are defined areas of neighborhoods for different ranks. You can mix townhouses and singles; it’s difficult to mix ranks.” Mixing ranks raises concerns of “comfort level,” explains Christina Shukis, the widow of a career Army officer. Subordinates and their families don’t want to feel under pressure to be always on their best behavior — in dress and other respects — when seen by superiors in off-duty hours.
So appealing are the apartments over the shops, however, that officers decided to rent two of them even though the rest of the units are occupied by families of enlisted personnel. The developer is in the process of filling the retail spaces with a Starbucks, a day spa, a convenience store, furniture store, sports memorabilia dealer, and other merchants.