About 50 miles west of Columbia, South Carolina, the sleepy old town of Greenwood is waking up. The streets are shady, the houses come in all sizes, and people have known one another for years. That's why native son Stephen Davis has returned, and that's why he's using new urbanism as the guiding plan for his new community, Maxwell Springs in Greenwood. And for some people, that's not possible. Mr. Davis intends to build his own home in the new development, because he's lived in this kind of community before and he knows it's the environment in which his children will flourish.
Empty nesters can scale down, while young families can buy their first home.
And larger homes will be sprinkled throughout, offering a diversity that is meticulously planned for intergenerational living. That's the aspect of new urbanism that also makes Bob Turner most enthusiastic about his development, Habersham, on coastal South Carolina, in Beaufort. So often, many retirees don't want to move into a community where everyone is the same age. At Habersham, just as in older communities throughout the Carolinas, the older people enjoy the children playing, and young families benefit from the wisdom of those who've already raised their families. In these developments, diversity is carefully planned.