A place of grace
Southern Village appeals to retirees seeking a neighborhood where they can walk the streets
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--When Linda Esner retired as a special education teacher in Rochester, N.Y., she wanted to live in the country. Her husband, Richard, an economics teacher, wanted the city.
They compromised on Southern Village, a leafy planned development of about 4,000 residents in this university town. Southern Village doesn't bill itself as a retirement community because, frankly, it's not. Singles and families live here, but many retirees move here, too, because it's a place where people are aging gracefully.
This is a community designed to foster neighborliness and active lifestyles. "When people used to think about where to retire, they would talk about how many golf courses or arts centers a town had," says Melane Hoffman, AARP's director of health campaigns. "But baby boomers aren't looking for a place to put themselves out to pasture." Instead, today's retirees and pre-retirees want to be with people of all ages. They want to be able to get around easily to nearby shops, libraries, bookstores, and fitness centers.
Neighborly. Southern Village, developed by Bryan Properties and opened in 1996, fits that bill. It's part of the "new urbanism" movement, which endeavors to provide close-knit communities through walkable neighborhoods. There are some 350 such developments nationally, including Kentlands in suburban Maryland, near Washington, D.C., and Seaside in the Florida Panhandle. This isn't a retirement concept but a community design that is proving attractive to seniors. "Communities that encourage physical activity help people be healthy, " says Rich Killingsworth, director of Active Living by Design, a national program located at Southern Village and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Southern Village's 1,500 residences include apartments, condos, townhouses, and detached homes. Prices range from slightly more than $100,000 to $1 million. The compact, hilly neighborhood is dotted with 13 parks, connected by a paved trail. Residents stroll to Market Street, where they can find a movie theater, a day spa, a co-op grocery, a fitness club, a pizzeria, and a church. They hop on free public buses to visit the library or take classes at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Rob Koontz, 68, is one of those scholars. He had been an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His wife had been a Department of Energy contractor. She wanted to be near high-tech; he wanted to live near a university with a good classics department, a subject he longed to study. They had lived in planned communities before and liked the concept. After moving to Southern Village two years ago from the Washington, D.C., area, he typically takes one class a semester. Mornings, he taps out a romantic novel, set during World War II. He tries to hit the gym three times a week. On Saturdays, he volunteers at a minimum-security prison.
Neighbor Jim Dunleavy, 54, who retired early at age 48 as an IBM finance manager, explains the pace this way: "It's a lot like being 11 or 12 years old again. When you're a kid, all kinds of activities look good, and you have time to do them. All those things you did as a kid, you can try them out now." Or not. "I can do what I want when I want and that includes doing nothing," says retired radiologist Ervin Philipps, 67. Though actually, he's doing a lot of things, including daily workouts.
About half of Southern Village's residents are over 50; some 15 percent are over 65. And they enjoy their younger neighbors. "It's not just a bunch of old people here," says widow Nancy Gadient, 74, who moved in six years ago from New Jersey. "It's important for children to see older people, and it keeps us more interested in life." Gadient, a former librarian, volunteered in Southern Village's elementary school library. (She also zips around on her moped.) Another example of that intergenerational connection: Gadient's daughter, a 40-something lawyer, lives in the neighborhood, and they share an occasional glass of wine.
The homes here feature narrow front yards and roomy front porches to encourage neighbors to chat. Retired nurse Rosemary Pierce, 63, and her husband, Frank, 65, do that on their walks. Her sister--a retired teacher--and brother-in-law live nearby. The sisters have started a business, Clutter Be Gone, to help people sort through their stuff. Frank, a retired engineer and attorney, wants to take the patent bar. Rosemary gardens and belongs to two book clubs and the swim and tennis clubs. Laughing, she says: "I never feel my age here."
This story appears in the June 2, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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