A New Urbanist Town

I’m in the middle of house-hunting, and one thing I’m really craving is a community — I love those neighborhoods where you can walk to shops and restaurants, you actually know your neighbors, and the houses have personality. A few weeks ago, my mom saw an article in a magazine on Seabrook, Washington, and I knew I’d found one such place.

With my three cousins, sister, mom, and aunt in tow, I headed there this past weekend to check it out. Seabrook is on the Washington coast (for those familiar with the area, near Ocean Shores and Pacific Beach) and was founded in 2004 on the principles of New Urbanism, which champions walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use buildings, and sustainability. It’s the antithesis to urban sprawl.

It’s absolutely adorable — old-fashioned houses with big porches sit close to their neighbors, there are a number of community-use fire pits throughout for s’mores anytime you’d like, bicycles are available free of charge to cruise around on, and you can walk to the beach or anywhere else in town in less than 10 minutes. Of course, there’s not much yet to walk to, save the beach, a cafe, a grocery store, a pottery shop, and — well — that’s about it. As Seabrook expands, it’ll have a wine bar, coffee shop, theater, bowling alley, shops, and more, but houses aren’t built until someone asks for one, and businesses aren’t started until demand supports it. For now, Seabrook is largely a community of second homes used as vacation rentals. When all is said and done, they plan to have 1,000 homes (they’re at a little over 100 now).

While only 35 full-time residents and a two-plus-hour commute to the airport might keep me from packing my bags and calling it home, my family’s already planning to go back for a stay. Life is simpler in Seabrook, and that’s not a bad thing at all.