Build by Example: Amelia Park shows that New Urbanism design doesn’t require an expensive beachfront locale and pricey housing.
By Barbara Ballinger
Memories can be a powerful trigger. Builder Joel Embry never forgot his childhood growing up in Quincy, Fla., a small American city just 21 miles northwest of Tallahassee that is filled with Victorian houses and Southern flavor.
Embry’s quaint hometown, coupled with a trip he took to nearby Seaside, Fla., inspired the developer’s biggest undertaking to date, the 110-acre Amelia Park. Nearly 25 years ago, Embry toured Seaside—a major catalyst for traditional neighborhood development—and decided that he wanted to build a similar community. “Seaside represented the first time I saw something that combined all my experiences in a pattern that felt like my home[town]. The neighborhoods we had been building were good but were missing something. Neighbors living near one another got to know one another, but people on the other side of the development were strangers,” he says.
Embry, managing partner of Amelia Park Development, didn’t want to mimic Seaside exactly. In 1988, he met with developer Andreas Duany of Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk to devise a way to adapt Seaside’s resort concept for a less expensive site that would be near, but not directly on, water and also appeal to a year-round, multigenerational audience by offering a variety of housing stock. “We wanted people to maybe start with a cottage or garage apartment, move up to a townhome, and [finally] go to a single-family house,” Embry says. He also wanted to find a location near medical facilities to serve the older homeowners.
Finding a site to meet all of these needs proved challenging. Embry’s first plan—nearly 20 years ago—called for a 600-acre development with three neighborhoods on Amelia Island, the northernmost barrier island in Florida. But the plan fell apart due to the recession of the early 1980s. While he waited for another site to become available, he developed conventional subdivisions on Amelia Island and also redeveloped the island’s downtown, Fernandina Beach.
In 1992, a smaller, 110-acre, lot on Amelia Island finally became available. The lot was more affordable than Embry’s first find and could accommodate one of his original neighborhood plans with about 420 dwellings. The site also fit Embry’s wish list of requirements. “It was undeveloped land surrounded by an existing development of shops, stores, and restaurants—like the hole in a donut. It was also just one mile from the beach and Atlantic Ocean, next door to a hospital, and near assisted living,” says Embry, who bought the site for an undisclosed sum that same year. 
Instead of catering to high-end resort clientele, Embry targeted the middle market. (The island’s southern portion had the luxury sector cornered.) A variety of builders were hired and ground was broken in 1998, with the first homes completed a year later. Most of the 300 homes that have been constructed so far by five builders cost between $300,000 and $800,000. “Our objective was to help residents live healthier lives and better manage the financial effects of aging,” Embry adds.
Today, the 110-acre project also features 20,000 square feet of retail and office space. On the boards are 100 more homes (for a total of 400), as well as another 40,000 square feet of retail and office space. The final outcome will be a small town with houses spaced close together, lush landscaping, and proximity to a town center that encourages pedestrian activity and neighborhood congeniality.
SMALL TOWN CHARM
Residents played an instrumental role in the design of Amelia Park. A series of collaborative charrette planning sessions with the developer, architects, urban designers, and community members inspired the community’s look and feel.
“Ideas don’t come from a check list of square footages and prices but by thinking about sitting on a front porch and living there,” says Duany, whose firm designed a master plan for the community based on New Urbanism principles coupled with the local market’s needs and geography.
The architectural look reinforces the small town charm Duany envisioned. The design was inspired by old-frame buildings characteristic of the mid-1800s historic district in nearby Fernandina Beach and the 1920s-era coastal architecture of surrounding communities. Yet, within that genre is a variety of styles, materials, and sizes—though all meet the community’s tight architectural guidelines, says Mike Antonopoulos, a partner of Embry’s at Amelia Park Development.
Landscaping was also a key design component. The goal: to make the landscaping look as if it had slowly evolved by preserving existing trees and vegetation and adding a new garden walk. DPZ made a concerted effort to preserve all trees and replace any damaged ones, says Jake Ingram, a landscape architect at his namesake firm, who worked on the project. New trees were also planted close enough so they’d grow and arch over the street to form a shaded, mature canopy reminiscent of older neighborhoods. Tree choices were varied to add visual surprise as residents and visitors stroll. “People tend to wonder what’s on the next street or around the corner,” Ingram says.
To ensure varied landscaping on private lots, the plan restricted the use of sable palms, which many non-Floridian homeowners tend to plant in excess, Antonopoulos says. “If they want them, we encourage them to plant them in their rear yards,” he says.
True to New Urbanism guidelines, the design encourages resident interaction. Single-family homes feature front porches and sidewalk-friendly designs with alley-fed garages, says Eric Moser, principal of Moser Design Group in Beaufort, S.C., which built homes at Amelia Park. The homes, townhomes, cottages, and other housing options overlook green space punctuated with five ponds, coastal oaks, elms, palmettos, and drought-resistant indigenous plants. Plus, the community’s distinctive 30-foot-wide pedestrian garden walk runs through the community and is constructed from different paving materials to indicate location. 
Residents are bound to run into each other, perhaps even as they get their mail. Four mailbox kiosks were purposely scattered about to unite the property. “It’s almost too easy to make friends. You can hardly go get your mail without people stopping you,” says Suzanne Batchelor, who moved to Amelia Park from Houston eight years ago.
BEYOND HOUSING
Amelia Park has a completed YMCA; a Montessori school and church are in the works; and a number of small businesses and restaurants have opened. Angie Wallace relocated her business, The Travel Agency, from another part of Amelia Island so she could own her office building, which DPZ designed to resemble an old train station. “We love it here,” she says. “We have the peace and tranquility we need to work with clients, since travel agencies have evolved into consultative work rather than walk-in traffic.”
Restaurant co-owner Alan Clack made a similar strategic move. He relocated KP’s Restaurant to Amelia Park in order to own the building and take advantage of the small town feeling. “We wanted the community to walk down and have a casual meal. We set out water bowls for their dogs,” he says.
Despite such resident enthusiasm, retail challenges remain. A big one: attracting more storekeepers willing to pay higher lease costs than they would in a strip center and to embrace a location on a street that runs perpendicular rather
than parallel to the main artery. “The mindset that all retail has to face heavy traffic has to change,” Embry says. While he actively recruited KP’s Restaurant to stimulate downtown life, he’s trying to let additional retail evolve naturally without concessions or heavy marketing, he says.
The community is still generating a lot of buzz in spite of these obstacles. Last year, Amelia Park won the Best in American Living Award for Best Smart Growth Community from the National Association of Home Builders. “We’re happy with where Amelia Park is today,” says Embry, whose satisfaction spurred him to acquire 20 adjacent acres where his company will construct a “hamlet” of smaller, high-quality homes with fine detailing. “The award is wonderful confirmation that we’ve done something special.”
But publicity has its drawbacks. Resident Batchelor would prefer that Amelia Parks’ profile remain low. “I’d like there to be less notoriety, so more people don’t move here,” she says, laughing. But that’s highly unlikely given the community’s charm.
