If you're looking for an example of a newly designed and built neighborhood that embodies just about all things smart and green, I know of few that can rival Glenwood Park in Atlanta. Just a decade ago, the neighborhood's site was an abandoned industrial brownfield, pushed up against Interstate 20 in east Atlanta, two miles from downtown. Now it's one of the best places in the city to live, and also one of the most environmentally sustainable in the country.
The neighborhood has a nearly ideal walkable density: with full build-out its 28 acres will contain at least 350 residences, 50,000 square feet of retail space, and 20,000 square feet of offices. (According to various sources, those numbers could reach as many as 425 homes and 150,000 square feet of commercial space. I believe it is currently about two-thirds complete and occupied.)
The housing is a mixture of types and has been available at a variety of price points, with single-family, townhouses, and condos all part of the mosaic. This enables people of different ages and incomes all to live in the neighborhood. Glenwood Park is also well-served by public transit and well-connected to other nearby neighborhoods; its relatively central location means that its residents' rates of driving and carbon emissions from transportation will be much lower than metro Atlanta's regional average.
Even better, Glenwood Park is a certified EarthCraft Community (sort of a local precursor to LEED-ND) for its superior performance in site selection, water management, planning and design, preservation landscaping, community involvement, and green building. The neighborhood was developed by Green Street Properties, founded by Charles Brewer (who also founded MindSpring).
The site had most recently been used as a concrete recycling facility, and was covered with 40,000 cubic yards of concrete when the project began. Compared to regional averages for a neighborhood of comparable size, Glenwood Park each year will reduce carbon emissions by over two million pounds, save over three million gallons of potable water, and reduce cumulative driving by 1.6 million vehicle miles. Impressive.
(For more about Glenwood Park, including more photos, links, and environmental performance stats, I have a longer story here.)
Kaid Benfield writes occasional "Village Green" commentary on DailyKos and (almost) daily on NRDC's Switchboard site about community, development, and the environment. For daily posts, see my Switchboard blog's home page.
Photos by Payton Chung (left), Green Street Properties (right).