Last year, when Andre Rouhani and Gabriela Reyes toured Culdesac Tempe, a lease development outside Phoenix, the place looked pretty sweet. They had victorious promenades, a boutique store and low missed buildings from white stuccos gathered around shaded yards.
The only surprise came when Mr. Rouhani, 33, a doctoral student at the Arizona State University, asked about residential parking and was told that they were gone.
The couple had two dogs, a child and another child on the way. “In short, we decided that all professionals surpass the shortcomings,” Mr. Rouhani said in a recent telephone conversation. The family gave her car to Mrs. Reyes father and moved to Culdesac in December. “We really love him here,” Mr. Rouhani said. “It’s the best place I’ve ever lived.”
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Modeled on cities in Italy and Greece built long before the appearance of cars, Culdesac Tempe is what his developers call the country First neighborhood intentionally built to be without a car.
Ryan Johnson, Culdesac Executive Director, said he wanted to offer a draft for life in a passable place, even in a country that is a cars focused and often baked.
“It’s one of the best things we can do for climate, health, happiness, low living expenses, even low costs of government,” said Mr. Johnson, who lives and Culdesac. “It’s also a better lifestyle. We all become the worst versions of ourselves behind the wheel.”
Although there is a short-term parking lot for delivery, merchants and guests, the Culdesac residents will be expected to bypass the nearby light railroad system, as well as in buses, scooters, electric bicycles and using a driving section. There are 22 retail stores, of several spaces for living working and few Korean markets. So far, 288 residential units have been built on eight of the 17 hectares on the site with 450 more planned units.
In the United States there are other cars without cars, mostly island institutions where people walk, bicycle or a tool on a golf course. However, zoning requirements in most cities usually require new development to provide residents with a minimum number of parking spaces, including the Phoenix area, a paragon of urban expansion. Culdesac Tempe developers received a special exemption from the parking request of the City of Tempa.
“This is completely different from our modern, conventional approach to development,” said Edward Erfurt, the main technical advisor at Strong Towns, a non -profit group in North America, which promotes the resistance to the community. “We have just had this experiment in the last eight decades where we have decided to prioritize an isolated transport system over our natural way of working together as people.”
The Tempe Culdesac broke that mold, said Mr. Erfurt, adding, “This is a very big deal.”
Culdesac’s two-and-three-story buildings are designed for desert climate, colored light white to reflect heat. They do not have to factor in residential parking have allowed its architects to configure buildings to maximize the shade and design narrow paths that encouraged the breeze and social engagement.
“The pedestrian is indeed the main person, the character you are developing for,” said Alexandra Vondeling, a leading architect on the project. Large glasses were avoided, the awnings added over the windows facing the sun, and the native plants and trees were placed for cooling. There is a wide promenade that can accommodate emergency vehicles, but without asphalt, reducing the Urban Heat Island effect and improves the conditions for the dogs living there.
Apartments range from study to three bedrooms, renting between $ 1,300 to $ 2,800 a month, which Mr. Johnson said were market rates. Almost 90 percent are rented.
Some residents are attracted to Culdesac because of their car without a car and others despite him. There is a contingent, an unknown size, which quietly still owns cars, just parked outside the place.
Sheryl Murdock, 50, a postdoctoral researcher who lives in Canada, rents a unit because she is often in the work temperates and wanted to balance the carbon shows of everything that flies.
Ashley Weiland and her husband moved with their young child to give up the car costs and eventually get a job at Culdesac, the one at the restaurant there and on holding.
Electra Hug, 24, who works for the City of Tempa and is blind, wanted to be close to public transport and have a sense of community. This is the first time he lives without the help of family and friends. “To have a good time or have fun, I don’t have to cross the street,” Mrs. Hug said. “It’s just a super unique and really just homemade.”
Mr. Rouhani and Mrs. Reyes borrowed their father’s car once a week for orders. Otherwise, they mostly drive public transportation with free leaks provided by Culdesac.
Living in a place where people do not cross in their cars means that the tempo is slower, with more relationship opportunities, said Mr. Rouhani. It’s a type of community, he said, where neighbors borrow a cup of sugar from each other. In the days after their daughter, three different families or brought a meal, rejected cookies, or offered them to buy them food. “We really feel supported and loved here,” he said.
David King, who teaches urban planning at the Arizona State University, said that Culdesac Tempe could encourage other developers to commit to exemption from parking requests. And Mr. Erfurt from strong cities said that the Tempe Culdesac could open the way, as it was, for similar car moves without cars that would be built in places such as trade market centers, which could address an affordable housing crisis, reduced loneliness and approaching people where they work.
“We could do it all by simply separating parking from development,” Mr. Erfurt said. “In every market, people are looking for it.”
