Would you be my neighbor?

By: J. David Chapman/July 3, 2019

Did your mother teach you to share? Do you like interaction with your neighbors? I want to introduce you to a type of neighborhood that is gaining popularity in the U.S. that requires sharing some common areas and incorporates interaction with your neighbors. It’s called a pocket neighborhood.

Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses, or apartments, gathered around a shared open space. This common space could be a garden courtyard, a walking trail, linked backyards, or a reclaimed alley. These neighborhoods can be in urban, suburban, or rural areas, but in all cases, have a clear sense of territory and shared stewardship.

Most of these neighborhoods have become multi-generational – appealing to residents of all ages. They can also have a mixture of owner-occupied units and rental units. This unusual setting seems to promote neighbor-helping-neighbor environments, where empty-nesters and single householders can be found helping, almost becoming de facto aunts and uncles of sorts.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the problem of loneliness. Pocket neighborhoods are one way the built environment is responding. Neighbors have a shared stake in the common ground in the neighborhood. Neighbors know each other’s names and tend to call on each other in emergencies or simply to hang out in the common spaces.

Design is critical to allow for residents to have both privacy and community. A limited number of dwellings (10 to 12) should share common amenities that are connected by walkways. The front porches of the homes face the commons rather than turning their backs on their neighbors. The open side of one home faces the closed side of the next. Windows of the homes are strategically located, or placed, so to protect privacy as well.

In pocket neighborhoods we talk about “car door to front door” distance. Typically, residents park their cars away from their homes a bit, causing them to walk though the shared common area on the way to their front doors. Research shows that this is critical at building relationships and strengthening bonds.

Pocket neighborhoods are not for everyone. People who want a private, independent lifestyle have many conventional housing opportunities, but for a growing segment of people who want a stronger sense of community, pocket neighborhoods are a welcome option.

J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).