Urban Village

We have several real estate and development clients. A common term in their parlance, mixed-use development, has always discomforted me a bit.

After all, mixed-use development is a marketing phrase. It’s used to sell big projects to government officials, private buyers and the public at large. But, like many of the phrases coined by developers, this one rests a little uneasy on the ear.

Mixed-use community is better, more about people and less about cement, but it’s too academic. It tries too hard.

How about urban village? The best mixed-use developments turn into real civic places on their own merit. They exhibit the density we normally associate with urban environments but embody it on a smaller scale. Hence, urban village.

Builders and planners everywhere are invited to use urban village. But, please, don’t add the word development after it.