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munity buildings, and recreation areas. And until an unsafe pedestrian footbridge was removed and never replaced, to stores, work, entertainment, restaurants, etc. All these facilities are located within or at the edge of the park.
Where are the homes? They surround the park. They are set in cul-de-sacs that run inward from outside perimeter roads. But these are not your normal cul-de-sacs. They are not wide roadways with houses facing toward a street. They are, in effect, narrow service lanes that lead to driveways and garages.
The revolutionary thing is that all homes face away from the cul-de-sacs. They face the other way. You walk out of your front yard and there’s a pathway that leads you to the park. It takes you to nature, safe walking, gardens, and anything you need. It takes you away from the sight, sound, and dangers of vehicles on the perimeter roads.
To top things off, the original plan was to have small factories, other work sites, and a green belt of open land beyond the perimeter roads, but it was too expensive to acquire the open fields. The rest of Fairlawn, N.J., grew up around Radbum instead.
What could be simpler? Almost everything you need is located around the edges of an inner park and you can walk to it. If you want to go somewhere else, you get in your car, drive out of your cul-de-sac, get on the perimeter road and drive to your destination.
Would something like Radbum work in Rappahannock County? Possibly, but not likely. First of all, Radbum covers 149 acres, which includes the 23-acre park in the middle. It has a population of over 2,800 people in 770 dwellings, and these include 550 single-family homes, 32 duplexes, 48 townhouses, and a 93unit apartment building.
It has a strong community administration, including a manager, a board of trustees with six committees, and a citizen’s association with a few committees. And there is a dues assessment, which runs about 25 percent of the property assessment, to keep Radbum as it was originally planned.
A Radbum-sized community, started from
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