21st Century Security and CPTED, 2nd Edition

401

21

Designing Safe Communities

and Neighborhoods*

*

Portions of the text in this chapter consist of articles and other publications previously written by the author including

possible portions found in the following Wiley publications: Planning and Urban Design Standards, Steiner et al.,

American Planning Association, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 0471475815, 2007. We offer special thanks to the American

Planning Association and John Wiley & Sons for permission to reproduce common content in this work.

CONTENTS

Safe Neighborhoods? .....................................................................................................................402

Gated Community Crime Study.....................................................................................................403

Do Gates Matter? ...........................................................................................................................406

What Is a Neighborhood? ..............................................................................................................406

Neighborhood Has a Discernible Center and an Edge ..............................................................408

Certain Prominent Sites Are Reserved for Civic Buildings ......................................................409

Buildings at the Neighborhood Center Are Placed Close to the Street .....................................409

Most of the Dwellings Are within a 5-Minute Walk to the Center ........................................... 412

There Are a Variety of Dwelling Types within the Neighborhood ............................................ 413

Small Ancillary Building Is Permitted within the Backyard of Each House ............................ 413

There Are Small Playgrounds Quite Near Every Dwelling ...................................................... 415

There Is an Elementary School Close Enough So That Most Children Can Walk

fromTheirDwelling ................................................................................................................. 415

Streets within the Neighborhood Act as a Connected Grid Network ........................................ 416

Streets Are Relatively Narrow and Shaded by Rows of Trees .................................................. 416

Parking Lots and Garage Doors Rarely Face the Streets .......................................................... 416

There Are Shops and Ofces at the Core and Edge of the Neighborhood ................................ 417

Neighborhood Is Organized to Be Self-Governing ................................................................... 417

New Urbanism/Sprawl Controversy ..............................................................................................420

Provide Clear Border Denition of Controlled Space ..............................................................422

Provide Clearly Marked Transitional Zones ............................................................................. 423

Relocation of Gathering Areas .................................................................................................. 423

Place Safe Activities in Unsafe Locations.................................................................................423

Place Unsafe Activities in Safe Locations.................................................................................423

Redesignate the Use of Space to Provide Natural Barriers .......................................................423

Improve Scheduling of Space ...................................................................................................424

Redesign or Revamp Space to Increase the Perception of Natural Surveillance ......................425

Overcome Distance and Isolation .............................................................................................426

Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing ............................................................................................................... 426

Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 432

Appendix A: Smart Code Module: Crime Prevention through Environmental Design ................. 432

Appendix B: Smart Growth CPTED Module:Annotation Safe Growth and CPTED ..................442

Chapter References ........................................................................................................................ 498