Prospect New Town - History

History

Wallace, who reportedly disliked suburbia, had previously bought the tree farm from his family and had wondered how to develop it in a tasteful way when he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Duany and the New Urbanist movement. Wallace, together with Duany and Longmont developer Dale Bruns, began planning the unique development in the middle 1990s. The development was to serve as a test case for traditional neighborhoods in the planning stages along the Colorado Front Range.

The parcel of land offered a full view of the nearby mountains, including Longs Peak. The development, at first called the "Wallace Addition" and the "Burlington Village", was to be financed at 37 million dollars. The partners also hired the Rocky Mountain Institute, based in Snowmass, Colorado, as consultants for the use of ecologically-friendly building materials and planning. The design calls for the eventual construction of nine small parks integrated throughout the houses and businesses. Some of the units will have apartments above garages, a traditional feature that will allow renters to live in the neighborhood and will allow homeowners to reduce mortgage payments. Other traditional features included in the project are the use of rear lanes, a feature that was once prevalent in the grid plans of most U.S. towns but which has been banished from suburbia. Duany has long espoused the use of rear lanes as leading to a better integration of automobile and foot traffic in a neighborhood.

As was the case with many New Urbanist projects in the United States, the proposal violated numerous local zoning ordinances and met with much initial resistance from local planning authorities and other agencies. In particular, the project's density did not have the required open space; the local fire and police departments objected to the narrowness of streets; and the Colorado Department of Transportation objected that the project had too many curb cuts. Wallace, Bruns, and Duany struggled throughout 1994 to convince the local and state authorities to allow the project. The struggle is reflected in Wallace's choice of street names in the project: the main thoroughfare off U.S. 287 is called "Tenacity Drive." The struggle of the three men paid off, however, and in the following year, many initial doubters came to embrace the project. In October 1995 the Longmont Planning Board granted the appropriate variances and unanimously approved the project, on the grounds that "this is what people want.". The project was strongly backed by Longmont mayor Leona Stoecker.

The first building phase was to include 65 lots. By the time of the approval of the planning board in 1995, Wallace had already pre-sold 35 of the lots. The initial success and enthusiasm prompted interest from other such developers. A developer from Colorado Springs began planning a similar development nearby. The nearby city of Broomfield likewise contacted California planner Peter Calthorpe, who espouses many New Urbanist ideas, to begin designing a master plan for their community.

In 1996 the development won the Governor’s Smart Growth Award. The development has been the subject of numerous articles in the local and national press in recent years.