How do you transform a pair of suburban shopping centers into a satisfying home for 10,000 people and an appealing destination for countless more visitors? Step One — clearing the land — is simple, because half the land is covered in asphalt, and the buildings are pretty much all just one story. Step Two: build forty buildings (your number may vary) with retail and other public uses on the ground floor, offices on the next two levels, and a generous heap of housing the rest of the way up. Step Three: make the spaces between the buildings range from intimate alleyways (think Zurich’s Niederdorf) to broad promenades (like Knoxville’s Market Square), with linear parks, outdoor lounges, fountains, playgrounds, garden squares, anything you can think of, except ...

No More Cars

Imagine what it would be like to step outside your building, and you’re already there. Everything you used to drive to — shopping, work, restaurants, entertainment, recreation — is now within just a few minutes’ walk. You feel healthier than ever, with exercise an integral part of your daily routine and with clean air to breathe. You’re more relaxed, free of the motorist’s myriad worries (parking, traffic, repairs) and the pedestrian’s once-continual duty (look both ways!), plus the extra measure of financial security that comes with freedom from the car. In your previous suburban life, you might have honked when you recognized someone on the street; now you can stop and chat. Life is good.

Getting There

With 66 percent more ground-floor retail space, the site will continue to serve its traditional role as a shopping center for the surrounding area, in addition to a wide range of new functions for its internal population of 10,000. Residents of the nearest neighborhoods can just walk across the street, but most “off-site shoppers” will continue to drive. That’s why Walkable Westpark’s design calls for two parking structures, with 60 percent more spaces than the existing lots. These large garages are wrapped with apartments, so they won’t be visible from outside. If demand for parking greatly declines in the future, the garages are designed to be easily converted to other uses, with flat decks instead of the long, sloping floors found in many parking structures.

Getting Around

At 65 acres, Walkable Westpark is compact enough that you can walk between its farthest corners in less than 15 minutes. The internal streets are arranged as a grid of small blocks with no dead ends, making walking even more practical. The design calls for two new bridges across the creek than runs through the site. Optionally, the plan can include streetcars that run around a loop of almost three-quarters of a mile. For the convenience of those who drive here to go shopping, the stores they most need are located closest to, or directly under, the parking garages. The most popular outdoor dining destination, along a creekside promenade, is also just outside the garages.

Walkable Westpark’s residents won’t need cars for everyday use, but most will make the occasional car trip — the surrounding area was designed for cars. When residents want to go elsewhere, they can take a car from a small shared fleet in the garages, paying as they use it. For those who drive often enough that they still need their own car, spaces in the garage can be leased for a monthly fee. Farther in the future, mass transit service (perhaps a subway) can connect this neighborhood to others like it, further reducing our need to drive. Until then, an off-road paved bikeway already runs right through Walkable Westpark. The bike ride to Balboa Island, for instance, is just 8.5 miles.

If you’ve visited car-free urban areas elsewhere, you may have seen delivery trucks on the streets — maybe little ones, maybe in the off-hours. Walkable Westpark’s retail and residential units can be expected to receive huge volumes of deliveries. And what about garbage pickup? The design proposes to keep trucks off of these pedestrian-only streets by having them drop off their cargo at loading docks located next to the two parking garage entrances. From there, pallets travel through a network of tunnels connecting to each building. Outgoing shipments (including garbage, in sealed containers for odor mitigation) use the same tunnels. And what about fire trucks? No doubt it’s possible to find ways to quickly put out fires without trucks … watch this space.

These newspapers are cartoonish, but their headlines are real: There’s a housing shortage so severe that it counts as a crisis. When new housing is built, it’s often located in the wrong places — far from amenities and employment centers, on previously undeveloped land at heightened risk of wildfires or flooding. This growth strategy forces new residents to contribute to traffic congestion, places housing in the path of natural disasters, and eats away at local farmland and wildlife habitat. Walkable Westpark is an example of a better growth strategy, putting plenty of housing within walking distance of common destinations on previously developed land, leaving the region’s open spaces as scenic vistas that continue to provide valuable ecosystem services.

While Walkable Westpark is located in a specific place, it’s an example of a redevelopment concept that people everywhere can advocate in their own communities. Walkable Westpark’s innovative features generate a wide variety of important advantages, mainly rooted in the choice to make the place very, very walkable. Keeping cars out of the picture eliminates a major source of injury, and a major set of residents’ expenses. We’ll enjoy the improved health that comes from a more active lifestyle, as we walk to our destinations, often in less time than it once took us to drive and park. The natural environment — key to our quality of life — will benefit from our reduced energy consumption and more efficient use of land. Perhaps best of all, places like Walkable Westpark have the potential to bring people together, facilitating greater understanding among society … as cities at their best always have.