"Green" Neighborhoods Don't Always Attract Eco-Friendly Residents, UF Study Says

GAINESVILLE, Fla.— They’re often billed as “green” neighborhoods, but New Urbanist developments don’t necessarily attract earth-friendly residents, a University of Florida study shows.

After conducting surveys in several Gainesville neighborhoods, UF researchers found that residents of one of the city’s largest New Urbanist developments did not score any better – and in some cases scored lower on key indicators of environmental awareness and activism – than residents of typical suburban neighborhoods.

“For New Urbanists, one idea has always been that a good environmental design will conserve natural resources,” said Mark Hostetler, a wildlife extension agent with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “However, even the best design must be managed properly, and residents must understand and have the will to take local action.”

Hostetler and graduate student Kara Youngentob surveyed 965 middle-class homeowners around Gainesville, the city of roughly 111,000 people that is home to UF, on their attitudes, knowledge and behaviors regarding environmental problems.

Slightly more than one-third of the respondents were from Haile Plantation, a development of roughly 1,700 homes on Gainesville’s west side. Built around a village center that contains both commercial and residential properties, the various subdivisions of Haile Plantation include park-like green spaces and are connected by a web of walkways. The development has often been cited as an example of some of the principles of New Urbanism, the urban planning philosophy that stresses pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities as a solution to the environmental and social problems of urban sprawl.

Slightly less than one-fourth of the respondents lived in the Duck Pond neighborhood, a historic district that contains sidewalks, homes with front porches and a common open space. This community design is what New Urbanist communities try to emulate. The rest of the study’s respondents – almost half the people in the survey – were from suburbs built in the decades after World War II.

Overall, respondents performed poorly on a few questions about local environmental issues, the researchers say. Fewer than half knew that water entering street drains doesn’t go to a treatment facility, or that it is illegal to feed raccoons. Most of the respondents didn’t know what invasive plants were and did not know what kinds of plastic can be recycled in the city.

According to the study comparing the three communities, residents of the New Urbanist (Haile) development did have the highest sense of community. However, they actually scored slightly lower on some questions relating to basic environmental knowledge than did residents of historic districts or post-World-War-II suburbs. They also scored slightly lower on questions designed to gauge residents’ commitment to simple conservation practices, such as recycling, carpooling or buying energy-efficient appliances.

There was one exception: Haile residents knew far more about the gopher tortoise – an animal that is protected by the state because of dwindling numbers and threats to its habitat. Haile was built around tortoise habitat, and the development’s managers have put in place programs to protect the tortoises and inform residents of their importance.

Hostetler’s conclusion: Even in green communities, people need ongoing environmental efforts to keep them abreast of environmental issues. Without them, he said, the environmental benefits of green design could dwindle over time.

“Green design is not enough,” said Hostetler. “Even the best-designed community is going to have an adverse impact on the environment if the residents are planting invasive species, not utilizing compact florescent lighting, or letting their cats roam the neighborhood to hunt wildlife – in other words, if the residents don’t understand the environmental problems in their area.”

Haile’s managers say those problems might emerge in other green developments, but not their own. Both outdoor pets and invasive plants are banned from Haile neighborhoods under rules enforced by the development’s homeowners’ association.

“When people move here, they know they’ll be giving up some of their property rights in exchange for the benefits of living in a well-managed community,” said Rick Medina, manager of the Haile Plantation Association. “The residents may not know why they can’t put in non-native plants, but they know that’s how it is.”