Last Harvest Review
I finished Last Harvest last night (I linked to it a few weeks ago). An interesting book which opened my eyes to certain aspects of home development, but it could have been better if it weren’t for the glaring and obvious editorial bent.
The book followed the development of a community called New Dalesville in south(west?) Chester(field) Pennslyvania. The author detailed the process, especially the arduous process of obtaining the necessary permits for the developer to get the process going so that builders could actually start selling homes. The author was very much on the side of the developers and often dismissed the township board’s concerns about the community’s impact which annoyed me.
The author was also very intent on on the style of the development, called Neotraditional Development, and spent a large portion of the book expounding it while lambasting more common development styles. The Neotraditional Development emphasises small lots, close houses, and pieces of open land, so called “garden communities”. Frankly, they sound like one of the cases where the elites claim people should like and want something that the average person has no real interest in. Later in the book he mentions that some the first lots to go in the development are the edge lots that are the largest and least according the the neotraditional development style—they end up charging a premium for them.
Regardless of my difference of opinion with the author the book was a good read and worth reading.
