Traditional Neighborhood Developments Trend in Baton Rouge Coming to Central and Zachary

By Christiana Johns, Editor

Believe it or not there was actually a time when we weren’t entirely reliant on our cars. Schools, offices and shops were right around the corner. We could walk to the grocery store when all we needed was bread and milk instead of getting stuck in traffic for a five-minute errand.

With the population surge in East Baton Rouge Parish after the 2005 hurricanes, residents are no strangers to crowds and traffic, but the new development trend popping up all over the parish might change that.

They are called Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs), and several are being built around the Greater Baton Rouge area. There are currently about 12 TNDs being developed in Baton Rouge. The most visible is Perkins Rowe on the corner of Bluebonnet Blvd. and Perkins Road, but there are others such as Willow Grove on Perkins between Bluebonnet and Siegen Lane, and another being planned is in downtown Baton Rouge.

Now TNDs are coming to Central and Zachary. In September, Baton Rouge developers Steele Pollard and Jimmy Nunnally of Nunnally Pollard Development, LLC bought the land near Lovett and Sullivan Roads in Central for $1.7 million to build The Village at Magnolia Square. The latest TND planned is Americana in Zachary, and veteran TND architect Steve Oubre who designed the development said he hopes to break ground on the infrastructure by early Fall of this year.

Best of both worlds

A Traditional Neighborhood Development is a nostalgic trip to a time when people lived, worked and shopped without having to drive, but a TND still offers conveniences and amenities of modern life. These developments have everything within walking distance – home, work, schools, shops, museums, parks and more – and allow people to leave their cars behind.

Oubre is an architect for Architects Southwest out of Lafayette and has designed 30 TNDs across the nation, including in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. He is the designer of the successful River Ranch in Lafayette, the first TND in Louisiana, which has been beneficial to Lafayette’s economy. River Ranch is 75 percent complete with 1,200 residents.

He said TNDs appeal to a broad spectrum of people because it is a mixed-use community. People who are looking to retire can downsize without leaving the same neighborhood, and first-time homebuyers migrate to TNDs because the area is conducive to walking. Even their children can walk to parks and corner stores. “Lifestyles change and they need different options. They can find those within the same neighborhood. You can spend your entire life in a small town and never have to leave. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Besides the convenience of everything being so close, there are health benefits to a more pedestrian-friendly area. Tommy Spinosa, the developer behind Perkins Rowe, said the TND will increase exercise in the daily lives of the residents. “People don’t walk because there’s no place they like to walk. We spent a lot of attention just on our sidewalks. It will make you want to walk!” Pollard said there are also huge environmental benefits to living in a TND. “By eliminating the car, we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, pollution and expenditures. A lot of families will sell one of their cars because they simply don’t need it. Imagine saving $500 a month for your children’s’ college education because you don’t have to pay an extra car note, gas or insurance.”

More or less traffic?

This idea isn’t entirely new. Before WWII many people lived in places like TNDs, but because of zoning laws, those types of neighborhoods became illegal to develop. However, several TND ordinances have been passed in the last six months in East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes that are making approval for these projects even easier to attain.

But despite all of the benefits of these neighborhoods, there are several concerns within the communities where they are being developed. The biggest concern probably comes as no surprise to most people – traffic.

LSU Civil Engineering Professor Sherif Ishak, Ph.D., said the corner of Perkins and Bluebonnet is “probably not the best location” for Perkins Rowe because developers are cramming everything into a congested area. He said developers should build closer to the outskirts of the city. “It would really take the traffic away and not bring people into the already congested places. The solutions are going to be extremely expensive if not impossible in the future.”

Spinosa admits that these developments cause traffic and one project won’t solve that, but he said similar projects throughout the city could make a difference. “If everyone approached a design like this, with the idea that you can live on a site and not leave it, then people would have to wait in traffic less. Let the density come in so you don’t have to drive 40 minutes to work.”

Oubre said a development of any kind will create traffic, but TNDs have the potential to generate less traffic than suburban developments because people will have options where they don’t have to drive. “Any of the TNDs we’re doing we’re thinking of having them engage in light rail or some kind of mass transit in the long term throughout the region.That’s what Perkins Rowe is doing.”

Pollard said he’s counting on the traffic to help drive the success of The Village at Magnolia Square. The TND is just under a mile from where the Central Thruway will be completed.

And as much as everyone hates to sit in traffic, Mike Bruce, Managing Principal of ABMB Engineers, said it’s a positive sign for the city. “Traffic is really a sign of a vital, growing, healthy, community. It can get so bad where it can actually become a negative thing, but if you’re in a community and you don’t have traffic, you probably have economic problems.”

Money and water

David Barrow, chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission in Central, said connectivity is part of the traffic concern. He said The Village at Magnolia Square currently only has one way in and out of the neighborhood on to Lovett Road. They are still in the process of studying more ways of relieving traffic from that single entrance.

Traffic isn’t the only problem. With the City of Central located in a flood plain, Barrow said drainage is a big concern anytime a new development comes to the area. New infrastructure has to insure that water will run off in retention ponds and drain properly.

Others are more concerned about the cost of living in a TND. Nunnally said The Village at Magnolia Square has lots currently ranging from $50,000 to above $200,000 and homes from $185,000 to $1 million. The Lofts at Perkins Rowe have condos ranging from $200,000 to $400,000.

But developers insist these prices include all of the amenities that will be convenient for residents such as schools, stores and office space. It will also include all of the detailed architecture of the buildings and the green space for parks that will be incorporated into the neighborhood as well.

Rural appeal

One of the biggest concerns about the TNDs in Central and Zachary is the loss of the rural appeal that attracts residents to those areas in the first place, especially in Central where people like living farther apart from each other. Pollard said that while TNDs are not like that, he believes they appeal to the rural sentiment that Central residents want to keep.

“The fastest way to make an urban environment is to build conventional subdivisions and retail stores with giant parking lots and force every single person to drive whenever they’re going to do anything,” Pollard said. “Look at Wal-Mart. It’s on 15 acres with five or so acres under the roof and ten acres of parking lot. It’s the quickest way to turn rural areas into nonrural areas.”

Pollard said TNDs would continue to build the sense of Central’s tight-knit community by allowing neighbors to run into each other at the town center or wave from their front porches.

Oubre agreed. He said Americana would work in Zachary because the whole city, not just the neighborhood of Americana, would be able to benefit from it while retaining the same solidified identity. “Zachary has never really lost the sense of what a community is. It’s very much about a place where children grow up with certain values and ideals. The neighborhood will represent a piece of every part of the community.”

Mallory Keating contributed to this article.