With Porches And Parks, A Texas Community Aims For Urban Utopia

Families hang out at the Mueller farmers market in Austin, Texas, on a Sunday. In a state where cars are king, planners designed Mueller with pedestrians in mind. Julia Robinson for NPR hide caption

Families hang out at the Mueller farmers market in Austin, Texas, on a Sunday. In a state where cars are king, planners designed Mueller with pedestrians in mind.

This is the first story in a two-part report on the Mueller neighborhood for the NPR Cities Project.

In Texas, a state where cars and private property are close to a religion, there is an acclaimed master-planned community that's trying something different.

When Austin's municipal airport closed 16 years ago, it created a planner's dream: 700 acres of prime real estate close to the city core. What emerged from years of public/private/neighborhood collaboration was the Mueller Community often spoken of as a masterwork of smart urban design.

Mueller is the product of the "new-urbanism" concept: the idea that a built environment can create meaningful community. Planners minimize the supremacy of the automobile and shape the environment around pedestrians.

Greg Weaver, Mueller project manager with Catellus Development, is walking on a crushed-granite path that circles a man-made lake complete with a fountain and diving ducks.

"The people in the park over there with the dog, the guy fishing over there ... the birthday party over here is something that was always envisioned in paper and in theory and it's become a reality out here," Weaver says.

A model of the Mueller master plan. With its goals of environmental sustainability and mixed-income home ownership, Mueller has become a model for development nationwide. Julia Robinson for NPR hide caption

A model of the Mueller master plan. With its goals of environmental sustainability and mixed-income home ownership, Mueller has become a model for development nationwide.

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With Porches And Parks, A Texas Community Aims For Urban Utopia