From the Taylor-Morley Website:



"Located in the heart of St. Peters, Bellemeade will consist of 500 single- family homes, townhomes, cottages, villas and condominium units. An integral part of this neighborhood will be commercial shops and businesses to accommodate residents? daily needs. The master-planned streetscape will afford residents the opportunity to walk to and from community amenities with ease.



The plan focuses on creating an intimate, friendly scale. Comfortable homes with small front yards line the streets, with plenty of green space nearby for walking, bird watching, biking and recreation. Garages, on the majority of the single-family homes, are tucked away on alleys. Existing hills, trees and views are preserved for community enjoyment. Public space along the existing creek forms a linear park setting for the neighbors."



Anyone know anything about this development? More Winghaven, or more New Town? Here's the website www.taylormorley.com/Bellemeade

mdboland wrote:I am the Internet Sales Manager for Taylor Morley Homes. The land at Mexico and Mid Rivers Mall Drive is currently being developed for construction and the project is tentatively slated to start in June of 2006. We plan to build our Trademark series and our Designer collection which we currently offer at Montclair. You can view the plans online at www.taylormorley.com

There is also a possibility that we will offer attached and detached villas. We have not yet determined pricing or how many homesites we will offer. If you or someone you know would like to be put on the waiting list to receive updates or if you have other questions, you can reach me at the email address listed below.

Given the great location (Right off of MidRivers) why didn't you decide to do a new urban development? Isn't Whittaker Homes just around the corner? Did you talk to them?



I'm just sad to see that the "status quo" has won again, despite a rocky looking future for the housing market. New urban developments have consistently done better than other development types during rough times.

Doug wrote:This whole New Urbanism concept is quite funny. It is supposed to create a more dense development, with citizens able to walk everywhere, that great but...



How can a New Urbanism community expect to be successful when it is placed in the middle of an exurb?



When this development is placed in an exurb, which is totally disconnected from the urban core, its citizens are going to be totally isolated in the community, since they do not have to leave. They also will probably not visit the surrounding exurb as much.



This New Urbanism is simply creating a smaller isolated community in the middle of a exurban community. These types of developments should be placed closer to the urban city, like Boulevard on Brentwood. That way the people in this development might actually leave their "community" since the surrounding areas are more urban, and connected (mass transit, etc).



I do not understand the theory behind these developments. Any idea?

You?re absolutely right that new urban developments should be interconnected with the surrounding neighborhood. Also, the form these developments take would be a function of the form of the existing built environment. In this case, the built environment is a 4 line arterial next to a large mall and sprawling residential cul-de-sacs. I?m not quite sure what the solution would be here. Probably wouldn?t look like New Town (not dense enough to front an arterial street). Maybe there isn?t a solution. Arterial streets equal ?death to urbanism.? The street has to be fixed before any sort of life can be expected there again.



IF Taylor Morley could control both sides of Mexico Dr. and reinstitute on-street parking, then MAYBE they could do something good. Otherwise, I don?t see anything good coming out of their development ? even if they do put garages behind the houses and set aside a civic area. (Which, by the way, is NOT New Urbanism.)



Doug, from what I understand, the New Urbanism would never advocate being an ?independent? community that isolates itself from the surrounding community. The developments I?ve seen in exurban/suburban areas try to increase the street connections leading into the development, not decrease them. This is the opposite of isolationism. Baldwin Park in Orland Fl. is a good example of this.



I agree that these sort of developments would be better near the urban cities. But IF Taylor-Morley is going to develop the plot of land at all; they should at least do it in a way that would remain somewhat livable after Peak Oil.

JennSellsMO wrote:Just where exactly is "the heart of St. Peters". It's so spread out, there really is no center, is there??



The ground for Bellemead is being graded right now. The location is almost surrounding DuBray Middle school on Mid Rivers, to behind the Post Office on Mexico. Where the "Haunted Cornfield" used to be - if you remember that a few Halloweens ago.

I'm not all that familiar with that area, but I think I drove right past that site on Easter on my way back from visiting relatives. The properties on the north side of Mexico looked a little dodgy to me - fairly run-down, shabby looking bungalows and ramblers. Seems to me that a neighborhood of grand homes like the Trademark series from T-M's website would look pretty out of place there. JMHO - no thrown tomatoes, to each his own.