February 29, 2016

Seaside arrives in Franklin, The Factory will be ‘flooded’


By Clint Confehr
– Review Appeal –

Franklin and the Seaside Institute are hosting seminars today and Friday at The Factory at Franklin where traditional neighborhood design for new subdivisions will be considered by about 270 visitors.

The Seaside Institute is a nonprofit group created in 1983 by Robert Davis, who developed Seaside, Florida, 25 miles northwest of Panama City. It promotes community building through design, education and the arts.

The seminars are being held here on an invitation by Franklin Planning Department Director Bob Martin, Leslie Pickel, the institute’s associate director, has said. Martin has attended many of the institute’s programs and told its leaders about downtown Franklin, which is what traditional neighborhood designers are trying to re-create.

Seminars include tours of Westhaven, Carlisle and Willow Springs in Franklin, designed with Seaside and Celebration in Orlando, Fla., in mind. Interconnecting streets, traditional architecture, moderately priced dwellings, and a mixture of stores and homes are characteristic of such developments.

“Many communities, like Franklin are considering or already experiencing adoption of traditional neighborhood design as an option to their land use plan.” The institute states.

Urban planners of national stature are to be here for the seminars called Case Study Critiques of Traditional Neighborhood Developments. Westhaven, Baldwin Park in Orlando, Birkdale Village in Huntersville, N.C. and Habersham in Beaufort, S.C., are subjects of the case studies.

Sponsors of the seminars include the law firm of Stites & Harbison, Boyle Investment Co.; Carbine Development; Gresham, Smith and Partners; Katcher Vaughn & Bailey; Land Design; Mello Mushroom; Park Trust Development & Main Street Homes; Southern Land Co.; SunTrust; and Tollgate.