Traditional living, with a slightly modern twist

Diane and Tom Kroll were similarly surprised when they took up residence in the Harbor Town TND in Memphis, Tenn. "There were lots of overtures to meet us," he says. "Suddenly ... [we] were part of a community."

Living in Harbor Town has given the Krolls a new identity. "At community parties, the first question isn't 'Where do you work?' " says Mr. Kroll. "You're not identified by what you do, but where you live."

Sarah Holt of Holt & Everhart Companies is one of the developers of Fairview Village, a nine-year-old TND located not far from Portland, Ore. She is concerned that mainstream developers are not building communities that encourage diverse populations, including seniors.

TNDs, on the other hand, typically have a range of house sizes and prices, letting people whose circumstances change - children leaving home, retirement - move to another home in the same neighborhood.

Ms. Holt, who lived in Fairview Village for five years, has observed firsthand the effects of walkable community design on seniors who don't drive.

She tells the story of a widower, wheelchair-bound, who lived in a "carriage house" apartment over his son's garage. Using an interior lift to navigate his stairs, the older man independently wheeled himself to and from the town square, the coffee shop, the library, and a favored spot near a deli, where he held court.

The ability to move around independently is a powerful influence on a senior's ability to thrive, experts agree. As a 2001 MIT AgeLab report puts it, "To people of all ages, transportation becomes the glue that makes all the little and large activities of a quality life possible.... Healthy aging, not just longer life, is the capacity to visit a friend, to see a movie, decide in the morning to get a haircut, to see a grandchild, or to simply get out."

A planning team in Oshkosh, Wis., is taking the TND concept even further, calling for a "Living, Learning, and Serving Community." The proposal for the LLSC incorporates education into its mix: "The neighborhood would include on-site university services and programs to support lifelong learning activities."

The LLSC can be an alternative to "gated golf ghettos" and other retirement settings that isolate seniors from the mainstream community, says David Green, president and CEO of Evergreen Retirement Community in Oshkosh. He is a member of the LLSC planning team, along with a local developer, and representatives from the University of Wisconsin and the city of Oshkosh.

"These retirees are the people that society needs. And they need society to reach their potential," he says.

"The compact, walkable settlement pattern, with a mix of uses and a variety of housing types, is ideal for older households," says Todd Zimmerman of Zimmerman/Volk Associates, commenting on analyses his firm has conducted on new traditional neighborhoods and urban residential neighborhoods [more than 200 in 42 states to date].

Mr. Zimmerman supports the idea of retirement within a multigenerational setting. "Even dressed up in traditional neighborhood design," he says, "the age- homogenous retirement development is ultimately a sterile environment that isolates seniors from life's challenges and delights."

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