Homeowners fight to keep a TND on course

Richard Parvey is an old hand at New Urbanism, and he’s hoping that a group effort by homeowners will save the Hollingsworth Park traditional neighborhood development TND) in Greenville, South Carolina. Eugene Kim and David Langenhan, two of his fellow homeowners in Hollingsworth Park, have the same hopes.

The three, along with other residents, have in recent months been trying to prevent the master developer of Hollingsworth Park from backtracking on its commitment to TND planning and design principles. As they see it, Verdae Development Inc., which controls the 300-acre Hollingsworth Park, told purchasers they would be part of a community possessing the hallmarks of a TND—traditionally styled houses; well-connected, pedestrian-friendly streets; a neighborhood commercial area; and no gates.

But after Parvey developed Hollingsworth Park’s first tightly-built section, Ruskin Square, Verdae executives took the development in a different direction— toward “pods” containing conventional sprawl products such as garden apartments with little relationship to the streets and sidewalks.

The homeowners, including Parvey, are speaking out, trying to persuade Verdae Development to adhere to TND principles in Hollingsworth Park. Parvey describes the homeowners’ effort as “community-led urbanism,” and would like to think that informed people, enthusiastic about traditional neighborhood design, can prevail over the

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