Hope for new communities as an alternative to sprawl?: Insights from developer perceptions of amenities in future new communities in the U.S. and U.K

•NCs are somewhat more amenity rich than the traditional master planned communities.•NCs, do not reach a level of a strong alternative to sprawl.•NCs are marginal improvements over many sprawling suburban forms.

New Communities are again being promoted as an alternative to sprawling urban growth. This paper uses the results of a unique survey of the real estate development communities in the U.S. and U.K. to examine the likelihood that future New Communities will provide the array of amenities necessary to create developments that provide a true alternative to sprawl. Based on an analysis of this data we conclude that while developers do envision New Communities as more amenity rich than much of the suburban master-planned communities of the last few decades, they are nonetheless still likely to produce developments that have an insufficient array of amenities to make future New Communities a strong alternative to sprawl.