By Ruth Wood-Steed
Off and on, Greg Whittaker
had thought of moving to Soulard or Lafayette Square. He liked
the homes, the sense of community and the fact that you could
walk to restaurants, stores and other neighborhood amenities.
These St. Louis urban areas reminded him of the many vacations
he and his wife had taken to Seaside, Fla., a planned “new urbanism”
resort community where he parked the car, never re-entering
it until it was time to leave. All the amenities and events
they needed were right there within walking distance, reflecting
the “new urbanist” movement—one that brings back the small town
environment. He had grown up in St. Charles County, though,
and really preferred to remain there.
He and others at Whittaker Homes batted around the idea of developing
a “new urbanist” community in St. Charles County for about 10
years. After all, if he and his wife liked the Soulard, Lafayette
Square and Seaside environments, yet preferred to live in St.
Charles County, wouldn’t others? Thus began the vision that
became New Town at St. Charles, a roughly two-year-old, “new
urbanist” community north of Hwy 370 at the New Town Boulevard/Elm
Street exit in St. Charles County.
Since then, New Town has become an urban oasis in the middle
of corn and soybean fields, north of the Fountain Lakes Commerce
Center. Its housing stock combines Soulard-like row houses and
town homes, Lafayette Square and Lindell-style mansions, and
single-family, front-porch-clad residences resembling those
found in small town Missouri. It contains something for all
price levels, from apartments to homes ranging from the $120
thousands to over $1 million (for custom homes).
Small pocket front yards, unbroken by garages and driveways,
abound with beautiful landscaping and boast continuous sidewalks,
inviting residents to lounge on front porches or take walks—to
work, run a quick errand, or go to church, the local cafe or
one of the community’s many social and cultural activities.
Multiple lakes and canals, most surrounded by green space, give
nearly everyone a relaxing water view. Cars are still welcome,
but in the urban style, residents access garages from the rear,
via paved alleys. It is very much a pedestrian-centered community.
New Town now consists of around 700 homes housing 2,000 residents,
plus a neighborhood center, encompassed within a 250-acre site.
About 20 businesses, including a grocery, title and mortgage
companies, insurance offices, an engineering firm, dry cleaner
and ice cream shop—to list just a few—call the community home.
Whittaker is so sold on his new development that he now lives
there. He also moved Whittaker Builders to the community, after
having been on Mid Rivers Boulevard for 25 years. About one
third of the company’s employees now walk or bike to work from
their New Town homes.
While New Town is still relatively small, at its present rate
of growth, it will quickly double, or even triple, its current
size. Whittaker says: “Our plans called for (building and selling)
about 200 homes a year, and we’ve done about 350, and we still
have a pretty good backlog of homes that we sold that we have
to build. We’ve moved up a number of phases—It’s way beyond
what we ever would have thought of—way beyond our projections!”
MarketGraphics, a Nashville, Tenn. housing market research firm,
named New Town the “2005/2006 best-selling community out of
over 18,600 developments in 16 states.” Considering the past
two years’ slow residential market, that’s quite a feat.
What’s yet to come? The original master plan called for the
community to evolve over a 10-to-12-year period, ultimately
reaching 5,700 homes on over 700 acres of property. When asked
what other plans exist, he says: “Anything you can dream of.
We have our first church (St. Charles Christian Church) open,
with the second chapel just opened, larger businesses, smaller
businesses. It’s going to be a whole community. We have sites
reserved for fire stations and schools. As the residents move
in, you’ll have more businesses open up to support them.”
While Whittaker, along with new urbanist planner, Duany Plater-Zyberk
& Company (DPZ), master planned the community, Whittaker invites
other builders and developers to contribute to it. Rolwes Homes
and C.F. Vatterott, among others, are already building residences
there.
Whittaker Homes also recently purchased nine, 53-seat streetcars
originally manufactured by St. Louis Car Company and operated
in St. Louis, before becoming part of and then retired by the
San Francisco Municipal Railway. The company is contemplating
potential uses for one or more of the streetcars within New
Town. Also, it has joined with the City of St. Charles to form
a trolley committee to explore bringing streetcar service to
the city.
Whittaker is so impressed with the new urbanist movement that
his company also designed and obtained zoning, again in conjunction
with DPZ, for a new mixed-use residential/commercial development
on the Noah’s Ark site. Local media were surprised at the company’s
then selling the development to Peoria, Ill. developer Cullinan
Properties, Ltd., but Whittaker says, “We never did intend to
develop it, because that’s kind of out of our realm, into the
bigger commercial.”
He added, though: “We’ve just gone through zoning for our second
New Town up in Kansas City. It’s actually bigger than this one.
We’re asking for approval for 9,000 homes on about 900 acres.”
According to the Kansas City Star, if zoning for that property
is approved in time, Whittaker anticipates breaking ground in
2008, and offering the first homes for sale in 2009.
Isn’t there a saying, “Everything old is new again?” Well, such
is the case at New Town. Come on! Take a walk or just set a
spell.
