Serenbe'?N????e??UNew Urbanism in the Piedmont

by Mark Lanier Johnson RLA, MLA, ASLA, president, Ecotone Land Design, Inc., Kissimmee, Florida

Serenbe was the first '?N????e??hamlet'?N????e?? built in Chattahoochee Hills, a small city of 2,378 people living on 32,000 acres southwest of Atlanta on the northwest side of the Chattahoochee River. The Chattahoochee Hills plan calls for preservation of a minimum of 70 percent of its acreage.

Serenbe is a New Urbanist inspired development in the Piedmont hills southwest of Atlanta. I had the opportunity to visit and experience this rural enclave while participating in a symposium and presenting on '?N????e??Green Infrastructure and the Spirit of Place.'?N????e?? The location turned out to be a great place to consider our development practices and the conservation of rural places and culture.

The community has definitely incorporated New Urbanist characteristics. While some are fixated on a rigid procession between an urban core (T6) transect zone to a rural (T-2) transect zone, Serenbe provides a realistic adaptation of the urban transect technique. The hamlet centers include higher density, vertical, mixed-use buildings that transitions quickly to single family homes with front porches and rear common-space exposure to woodlands or farm acreage. According to the developers of this 1,000-acre community, a typical suburban sprawl plan might develop 80 percent of a 1,000-acre site, but Serenbe intends to have a final build-out that preserves 70 percent of the existing rural countryside as pastures, crops and forests.

Designer Robert Rausch conceived of the "Tim Burtonesque" iron-poled street lighting for Serenbe, brought to fruition by Robinson Iron of Alexander City, Alabama.
Photo courtesy: Robinson Iron

In some respects, the development is reminiscent of the conservation subdivisions that Randall Arendt was touting in the 1990s. Minus the commercial facilities, the residential areas seek to preserve the terrain and land uses. While row crops and pastures are present, there are also large areas of natural forested habit in ravines and upland hillsides. Public access is encouraged throughout the common areas, and one can even walk by the effluent-treating constructed wetland on a raised boardwalk. But, if you want exercise other than walking, there are ball courts at a community park and equestrian opportunities. Though the use of cul-de-sacs is minimal and pedestrian pathways provide connectivity through serpentine roads, the plan view of the community looks more like an Arendt layout than one that might be proposed by the New Urbanist guru, Andres Duany.

Touted as a '?N????e??development supported agriculture'?N????e?? by some, Serenbe is probably not the ultimate answer for preserving farm acreage. The kitchen garden of the Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast, and the 25-acre organic farm adjacent to the Grange hamlet that serves the three restaurants of the development and others in nearby Atlanta, deserve attention for their positive examples. However, if organic produce, poultry, dairy, or ranching were the focus of the community, more homes might be adjacent to pasture and row crops, rather than tucked into secluded woodlands. Significantly, each hamlet is a lifestyle choice, ranging from the artist-focused Selborne, to the agricultural and equestrian-oriented Grange Hamlet and a future health and wellness hamlet. If these lifestyle choices fail to meet one'?N????e??os needs, other New Urbanist communities might be developed in the 40,000-acre city of Chattahoochee Hills, of which Serenbe and its hamlets are a very small part.
While the place called Serenbe certainly has a rural character that celebrates the historic culture of the site, it does not embrace the concept of a food-producing market center espoused in Theory & Practice of Duany'?N????e??os Agrarian Urbanism.

However, I don'?N????e??ot think that is the intent of Steve and Marie Nygren and those whom they attracted to launch this rural community. The gravel lane that serves as an entrance to the Farm House Bed and Breakfast and an access to Selborne (one of the two current hamlet sites) reflects the desire to hang onto a '?N????e??country living'?N????e?? lifestyle. But, while farming is one of the activities programmed for this development, the place is intend for an eclectic community of artists, writers, business people and farmers who share the Nygren'?N????e??os love of the countryside. While some businesses provide local services, the three gourmet '?N????e??destination restaurants'?N????e?? serve to reflect this is not a self-contained utopia, but depends upon visitors from beyond their borders to infuse the local economy. Web-based businesses or other livelihoods that don'?N????e??ot require daily trips to a nearby city can allow Serenbe or the city of Chattahoochee Hills to be viable. But, businesses and occupations that require the physical presence of employees at large factories, warehouses, etc., do not appear to be the market for a community like Serenbe.

Public access is encouraged throughout the common areas. You can even walk by the effluent-treating constructed wetland on a raised boardwalk.

Just as New Urbanism is largely a development course which uses tools like the transect technique, form-based code, and traditional neighborhood development plans to reinvigorate decaying or blighted areas in the urban and suburban landscape, Agrarian Urbanism is a tool for rehabilitating large areas of farmland to provide continued agricultural productivity, conserve natural habitat and added residential units without obliterating the countryside. Serenbe does not seem to make a strong statement in the Agrarian Urbanism direction, because its hamlets promote varied lifestyles.

However, it may be a model for abandoned crossroads that have been bypassed by wider and faster road construction projects over the past 100 years. These places have the beginnings of small community, but have ended up on the periphery of suburban developments, instead of being demolished by sprawl. It is a strong lifestyle choice for environmental sustainability and a connection to the rural setting that seems to be the central thrust to the community'?N????e??os apparent success.