25 
a new community can offer new jobs and housing for residents in the 
surrounding area. 
Planning new communities as extensions of existing towns will help 
the new community developer overcome many of the ‘‘chicken and 
ege”’ problems that have haunted several developments in the past. 
Imbalances in the initial attraction of either jobs or residents will be 
more easily absorbed by the existing employment and housing in 
the area. The problem of not being able to attract employers until 
there are people and not being able to attract homebuyers until 
there are jobs will be somewhat alleviated by the existence of both 
jobs and employees. Furthermore, churches, social institutions, and 
community-serving facilities that the developer is usually unable to 
provide for the initial residents in an isolated new community are 
already available. This will help to cut the developer’s costs and 
provide better services to initial residents. (There are, of course, the 
disadvantages of not being able to plan and nurture these new institu- 
tions according to more idealized goals or in ways that would be 
more responsive to the future needs of the new community’s residents.) 
Economic arguments for building new communities in open rural 
areas depend on the assumption that the difference between marginal 
per capita product and marginal cost in a new community wil be 
greater than in existing urban areas. In fact, though, the opposite 
seems to be the case if we judge by existing cities that are comparable 
in size to proposed new communities.” That is, the gross product per 
worker is higher in more densely developed cities than it is in suburban 
areas. 
New communities in metropolitan areas can be designed to take 
advantage of (1) the existing employment opportunities in the suburbs, 
(2) the rapidly growing population potential, (3) the availability of 
existing physical and social infrastructure, (4) transportation access 
to a variety of urban and suburban centers, (5) the obvious economies 
of scale which accrue to large scale development. 
A growth strategy based on the new community concept would seek 
to develop growth centers in metropolitan areas (where new urban 
gains are likely to occur) which will help to improve the overall pattern 
of urban development. “The role of the central city would remain 
strong. Rather than competing with central cities, in a rational 
redistribution of the region’s activities in a high-growth area, new 
communities would complement and relate to the central city.” 
The feasibility of a new community depends on three general 
factors: Accessibility, availability, and developability. Accessibility is 
essentially a measure of the degree to which the proposed development 
will link into the transportation and communication network of the 
metropolitan region. Availability relates to the possibility of assem- 
bling a site at a competitive price with manageable financing. Develop- 
ability deals with the geographic and topological suitability of a site 
and is closely related to the kinds of technologies (land-fill techniques, 
bridgebuilding capabilities) available. 
23 William Alonso, “‘The Mirage of New Towns” in “‘The Public Interest,’’ No. 19, spring 1970 (based on 
an earlier paper, ‘‘What Are New Towns For?” prepared for the research conference of the Committee 
on Urban Economics, September 1969, Cambridge, Mass.), p. 5. 
24 Alexander Ganz, ‘“‘Our Large Cities: New Directions and Approaches,” (MIT, Laboratory for Environ- 
mental Studies), December 1969, p. 46. (Table VI: hypothetical contribution of our large cities to na- 
tional growth and welfare.) 
25 Gladstone, op. cit., p. 538. 
