Master Planned Communities of Florida
Description
A “master planned community” is essentially a community that was designed with a plan that included more than just houses and maybe a community pool. These communities typically offer a significant amount of shared green space as well as a variety of amenities. Master planned communities may also be “mixed-use”. In these cases the communities will include more than just residences and neighborhood recreational facilities, but also some number of businesses. A mixed-use master planned community usually has a designated downtown area where you’ll find the businesses as well as possibly some “downtown” townhomes and condos.
Often master planned communities offer a wide variety of residences from modest one bedroom condos to multi-million dollar waterfront homes. These communities can vary greatly in size with the larger ones having a variety of separate neighborhoods under the same master plan. The legal structure of these developments vary. Some require you to belong to more than one home owner’s association (HOA) because your home may be under the umbrella of a small neighborhood while also being under the umbrella of the larger community’s HOA. Additionally, some of the communities may have taxing authority which means that some of your association dues will be billed through your property taxes while other dues may be billed separately. These fees are important to understand when you are shopping for a home in a planned community.
History
Most of Florida was undeveloped when other parts of the country were booming 100 years ago. By the time Florida really started to grow, the automobile was already the primary form of transportation. Because of this, compared to much of the country, Florida has very few old towns designed to be walkable. Instead the majority of Florida grew up in more of a sprawling fashion where cars were an absolute necessity to get around. Neighborhoods sprung up all over Florida but these were just a collection of houses in the same area. Slowly the idea of having neighborhoods with shared amenities and rules became popular (often referred to as “subdivisions”). But these subdivisions didn’t resemble a town.
Seaside, FL
Photo Courtesy of: Visit Florida
The only thing that the residents walked to was the pool or tennis courts. But in the early 1980’s suburban residents began craving a more traditional style of community and as a result, “new urbanism” was born. The original vision was for people to live a more community-focused life where everything was within walking distance and people knew their neighbors because they saw them frequently in the small “downtown”. Florida’s first master planned community, Seaside, was established in the panhandle in the 1980’s in what at the time was a very underdeveloped area. Compared to newer master planned communities, Seaside is very small as it only encompasses 80 acres. Many of the newer planned communities are more than 5,000 or even 10,000 acres. Unfortunately, some of these newer communities are so large that the town center is no longer walkable and the small town feel has disappeared. Luckily, Florida has the 2nd highest number of master planned communities in the U.S. (second only to Texas), so you are likely to find one that is just the right size for you.
