10-year Celebration Pioneering planned community marks first decade
By Daphne Sashin, Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer
Published November 10, 2006
Orlando Sentinel
CELEBRATION -- In another time or another place, Emma and Tara
Stephens' small-town childhood might not have seemed quite so
extraordinary.
The twin sisters learned to fish at the lake in the center of town and
walked to the annual Fourth of July parade. When they were younger,
they lived so close to school that their dad could stand on the front
porch and wave goodbye as they walked into class.
Now 16, Emma and Tara can ride their bikes to their after-school jobs
at a local ice-cream shop, where they recognize most of the customers.
"It's a really cool place to grow up," Tara said. "There's a
close-knit, family feeling."
Ten years ago, Walt Disney Co. welcomed its first families into a town
built around families, foot traffic and community. To the rest of the
country, Celebration was a precedent-setting experiment in suburban
planning -- and a test of whether a company that specialized in theme
parks could engineer a true community.
Today, interviews with 40 current and former homeowners suggest that
Celebration has lived up to its promise as a different kind of suburb.
The town that celebrates its 10th Founders Day this weekend is home to
nearly 10,000 people. There are doctors' offices, dry cleaners, salons,
a day-care center and at least 11 religious congregations. There are
groups for retirees, divorces, artists and Brazilians; a Montessori
school, a Little League, Special Olympics and a memorial garden
honoring members of the community who have died -- all initiated by
residents.
Celebration also has its share of real-life problems. Among residents'
gripes: a shortage of downtown parking; the lack of a supermarket; a
high school that gives some parents heartburn; numerous complaints of
shoddy home construction; and second-home owners who are rarely there.
The high home prices and lack of diversity -- nearly 84 percent of
Celebration voters are white -- feeds the town's reputation as an
elitist enclave.
"It does have its ups and downs, but that's what makes it even more
special," said Rosario Michelle Ramirez Matabuena, 22, whose family
moved from Falls Church, Va., in 1996. "Celebration is what it is
because of me, because of people like me that came to live here . . .
to start something new and start something great."
Return to New Urbanism
Disney's decision to build a pedestrian-oriented community with front
porches, a mix of housing types and shops was significant at a time
when suburban developers were building sprawling compounds of houses
whose owners had to get in their cars to do anything. Celebration gave
instant credibility to the planners advocating a return to the design
principles of the 1920s and '30s, known as New Urbanism, said planner
Victor Dover of Dover, Kohl & Partners in Coral Gables.
"Celebration wasn't the first New Urbanist community, but it was the
first one on such a scale and the first one to be undertaken by such a
large, bottom-line corporation," said Dover, who created the master
plan for Winter Park's Park Avenue makeover. "It sent a message to the
investment community that this idea of building a town rather than just
sprawl was an idea that could make you money."
Since then, hundreds of developments have copied or improved on
Celebration's features, including Baldwin Park in Orlando and Winter
Springs Town Center.
Buyers showed they were willing to pay a premium to know their
neighbors and spend less time in their cars, even if it meant
sacrificing big backyards and living by a thick book of rules regarding
the design and upkeep of their properties.
As a testament to its staying power, Celebration was the
second-top-selling community in Metro Orlando last year, with 1,067
closings, including 122 condominium conversions. Prices now start at
just less than $200,000 for a one-bedroom condo.
That should change as traditional neighborhoods become more common,
Dover said.
"There's little about a connected community that's inherently more
expensive to build," Dover said. "When it becomes more common to have
neighborhoods with these design conventions . . . the prices will be
more normal."
Celebration's design continues to foster social connections even as the
town grows. Front porches and side alleys make it easy for neighbors to
interact. Parks and coffee shops just a bike ride away create natural
meeting places.
"That creates a sort of general trust among people that we're sharing
the same place -- that we are in this place together," said Kevin
Leyden, an associate professor of political science at West Virginia
University who studies how the design of a community affects people
physically, socially and mentally.
The residential owners association's Town Hall and the Celebration
Foundation, also funded by homeowners, created a newspaper and intranet
where people could make connections. Town Hall began home-spun
traditions such as the annual Easter egg hunt and the July Fourth
parade.
Celebration is not immune from crime. But families feel a sense of
security because they know so many neighbors, said Terri Florio, whose
family moved to Celebration in 1996. Her youngest child, Grace, is now
15.
"If Gracie's downtown on Friday night with her friends . . . there's
probably 20 sets of parents that know her that are going to report on
her if anything is not kosher," Florio said.
Some leave disappointed
It wasn't for everyone. Some people bought in as a real-estate
investment and moved on. Others were disappointed by the Osceola County
School Board's decision to build a large, regional high school in
Celebration after residents were promised a progressive school that
would take students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Jessica Carrion, a mother of two, said she loves Celebration but
worries what she'll do when it's time to send her oldest to high school.
"We're very torn," said Carrion, 30, whose parents moved to Celebration
in 1997. She and her husband followed two years later.
School Board member Jay Wheeler said he understands parents' worries --
in three years, Celebration High School has never earned higher than a
C grade -- but says a child can still get a good education there.
In 1998, Beth Moriarty thought she'd spend the rest of her life in
Celebration. But five years later, she and her husband moved to Baldwin
Park, which echoes Celebration's style but has the amenities that go
with being in the middle of Orlando.
"It's not billing itself as the great New Urbanism experiment that
you're going to have a different life simply by moving there," Moriarty
said of Baldwin Park. Unlike in Celebration, she said, she doesn't have
to get in her car to buy a light bulb.
In Celebration, residents must leave the neighborhood to pick up
groceries or school supplies. But the other day, Risa Wight's three
children had orthodontist appointments, soccer, speech therapy,
tutoring, religion classes and flag football -- all in Celebration.
"With three children going in different directions, it's still
manageable, because everything is so close," Wight said. "Now virtually
everything we're involved with is right here in town."
Daphne Sashin can be reached at 407-931-5944 or
dsashin@orlandosentinel.com.