Inverted Townhome Communities (Atlanta, Savannah, Lilburn: apartment, condos, crime)

[NYbyWAYofGA]

I was looking through a number of new townhome developments in the Atlanta area and couldn't help but notice the "inverted" configuration of many of them. What I mean by "inverted" is that there seem to be attempts at creating walkable communities, but the townhomes are configured so that the garages are next to the front doors, or the whole community is just totally inward facing (still in a townhome format) with maybe a little private community park in the middle.

If the point was to create walkable communities, why not just have alleyways where the cars can drive through and park in the garages in the back next to the backdoors with the front doors and little yards facing the sidewalks and the rest of the surrounding community/area? Those "inverted" communities' emphasis on the private realm seem unbalanced in regards to creating a place that is suppose to be walkable.

Places that have townhomes that blend into and face the surrounding community well are Glenwood Park and Inman Park. In those places, the public realm seem to be emphasized much more and they seem much more walkable as a result. With all of that said, what are your thoughts/observations/opinions?

[SW30303]

I never thought of this term "inverted" so thanks for bringing that up. I was looking at new townhome developments about 5 years ago in Dekalb and Gwinnett primarily. They often are built up as you mention, garages in the front with the entrance next to them and sidewalks around the properties. I got the impression these townhomes are primarily built for working people who come home, park in their garage, and have little maintenance to deal with. Having very few parking areas for guests was also a drawback for me when looking at these condos. I found that a big negative for trying having people come over for a gathering in your home (practically no parking).

In all I think your design concept would be better (with the alleys) than what we typically see, but with intown developments, I can't stay I have noticed those as often lately, but it is probably a similar design you describe.

Really, the way I see it, the developer tries to get as many units in there as possible to make a bigger bang for his buck, especially intown. Practicality seems to mean less.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by NYbyWAYofGA

If the point was to create walkable communities, why not just have alleyways where the cars can drive through and park in the garages in the back next to the backdoors with the front doors and little yards facing the sidewalks and the rest of the surrounding community/area?

Typically (though not always), neighborhoods with alleyways are a more "Northern design element" than in the South. Many Northern cities are much more compact, and the homes in intown neighborhoods are much closer together, so there wasn't room for side-attached garages, so they many times had them as a separate building like a large shed in the back, with access either through a narrow driveway at the front of the house that went around back to the garage, or, through an alleyway in the back. Southern cities even intown, have had more space in-between the homes, so they got into the habit of either building garages attached to the side of the homes, or in the case of townhomes, they just stuck them like a daylight basement front-facing thing in the front. I think in New Orleans and maybe in Charleston, South Carolina though, there are neighborhoods with more alleys than in many other cites down here. Savannah has a few, too. Hey - go to the West Coast - there are entire (large!) communities where all you see on the front of the house is a huge garage door, and you have to access the front door via the side.

I do know what you mean, however. I grew up in Charleston, WV which is actually more Northern than Southern in the architecture and neighborhood layouts (think of a mini-Pittsburgh). Every house I lived in up there had an alleyway behind it that people used for coming/going/parking/etc.

Where you'll get it here: In the last few years here a trendy-ish development started to pop up called "Ranch Condos". A small handful of developers got on the wagon with these and built a number of these communities throughout the area. They are not condos in the sense most think of, though. Basically, just think of flat layout, single story apartment style homes. Now cluster four of them together in each building (kind of like two duplexes put together), and then cluster a number of these 4-unit buildings in a community. In-between each building is an alleyway that leads to the garages in the back of each home, out of site when you drive down the main roads facing the fronts of the homes where you typically just see their front doors and a row of windows where a sunroom is. So far, every ranch condo community I've seen is basically done the same way, and all have the alleyways. Decent design, if not cookie-cutter.

[NYbyWAYofGA]

Originally Posted by SW30303

In all I think your design concept would be better (with the alleys) than what we typically see, but with intown developments, I can't stay I have noticed those as often lately, but it is probably a similar design you describe.

I think the use of alleyways is a very efficient way of incorporating parking into a development that aims to be walkable. It is the best of both worlds. You have the parking available in between the buildings, accessible through the alleyways, which gives the "luxury" of being able to build out to and better embrace the sidewalks and public realm. There are actually excellent examples of how this is done in Atlanta. If only the majority of these new townhome developments were configured this way....

Glenwood Park





http://www.brunningandstang.com/announcement/image/34/gp_dec.jpg?1198184364 (broken link)



Inman Park:

[koko339]

I think the reason that the urban design benefits of townhomes are ignored in the suburbs is because many buyers don't care/the developements aren't built in particularly pedestrian friendly places. There are exceptions of course: Vickery, Serenbe, Woodstock Downtown, etc.

Many townhome buyers in the suburbs buy because townhomes are cheaper than SFHs and low maintenance. They don't necessarily care that the prominent garages don't create a nice walking environment, and the inverted configuration often helps shield them from the ugly sprawl surrounding them and cuts down on noise.

[atlantagreg30127]

I think an unfortunate factor to think about too, is that many of the older alleyway designed neighborhoods in various parts of the country were there LONG before the words "carjacking" and "home invasions" were in our vocabularies.

Now, we can (and do) argue about just how bad Atlanta's crime is compared to other cities these days, but the fact is, certain types of crimes are now more common in EVERY city than they were decades ago. Front facing garages are typically viewed by home buyers as "safer": You can see who/what is around the entrance of your home and the garage as you pull in to your home. Back garages accessed through alleyways are much more hidden and secluded - giving people who are up to no good a much better way of hiding and staying hidden. It's easier for them to break into one of these types of entrances/garages and be out of site in an alley, than in front of your house. I'm not exactly sure how much thought goes into this during the design process, but working in a field that does have contact on some level with developers, I have heard the "security" issue brought up about this before.

[NYbyWAYofGA]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

I think an unfortunate factor to think about too, is that many of the older alleyway designed neighborhoods in various parts of the country were there LONG before the words "carjacking" and "home invasions" were in our vocabularies.

Now, we can (and do) argue about just how bad Atlanta's crime is compared to other cities these days, but the fact is, certain types of crimes are now more common in EVERY city than they were decades ago. Front facing garages are typically viewed by home buyers as "safer": You can see who/what is around the entrance of your home and the garage as you pull in to your home. Back garages accessed through alleyways are much more hidden and secluded - giving people who are up to no good a much better way of hiding and staying hidden. It's easier for them to break into one of these types of entrances/garages and be out of site in an alley, than in front of your house. I'm not exactly sure how much thought goes into this during the design process, but working in a field that does have contact on some level with developers, I have heard the "security" issue brought up about this before.

Well, some of these newer townhomes have gated alleyways and most of the cars pull right into the back garages and people go into their townhouses right from that garage. So, I don't see how cars parked in back alley garages would be anymore prone to break-ins.

[arjay57]

I'd say another factor is convenience. Some people don't want to have to drive all the way around back just to park the car. You can also run into issues with your neighbors trying to use the alley at the same time.

[NYbyWAYofGA]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I'd say another factor is convenience. Some people don't want to have to drive all the way around back just to park the car. You can also run into issues with your neighbors trying to use the alley at the same time.

It's no more inconvenient than going to a drive-thru fast food place.

[cwkimbro]

They are actually very popular. Alot of it depends on the age of development. They are more common in newer projects and are not always limited to townhomes.

Here is a google aerial shot a neighborhood near Suwanee

suwanee, ga - Google Maps

suwanee, ga - Google Maps

Suburban Infill in Lilburn
suwanee, ga - Google Maps

Small town infill in Norcross (similar projects going up in other towns like Lilburn, but Norcross is ahead time wise)
suwanee, ga - Google Maps

5-10 years ago the ARC did a big survey of residents asking opinions through photos of various neighborhoods and compared land values, etc...

What they found was residents were overwhelmingly not against density, but as density increase aesthetic appeal became very important. So there has been a push with developers to integrate this into projects. In some cases it is even easier for them to get denser zoning if they do. The idea from city/county level planning is... If you build townhouses... build townhouses that will maintain their landvalue better over time. This will make the residential area around it mature and stay more stable. There is also a push to make townhouses apart of large neighborhoods around them, instead of small one or two street complexes. They stay more valuable and better kept when they are apart of a small city or larger neighborhood they can mature into.