Mixed-Use Residences
Appeal to Busy Families

The last thing Steve Nozicka wants to worry about in a few years is whether he spent enough time with his two sons when they were young. He's a professional photographer and until recently, he spent two hours each day commuting to his studio and says he often felt rushed throughout the day.

That's one reason Mr. Nozicka and his wife, Geri, combined their business and family lives a few months ago by purchasing one of 22 homes in a live-work community in Southern California called "Front Street." Located within Ladera Ranch, a master-planned community in Orange County, Front Street homes are designed with office space large enough to house a small business. 

"This house afforded us the chance to have a business and a house all together," says Mr. Nozicka, whose photography studio is in his home. "Probably in another 10 years, my older son will be off to school and begin his own career, and we won't get the chance to spend quality time together. So we felt it was important to have the kind of presence with them available through Front Street, to be with them and involved in their lives as much as possible."

Building a mixed-use development as a new residential neighborhood of single-family homes is unusual, says Ed Tombari, land-use planner for the National Association of Home Builders, a trade organization in Washington, D.C. He believes that this may be the start of a trend.

The developers of Front Street think the suburban, live/work concept has benefits that time-crunched homeowners can't resist.

According to Ralph Spargo, general manager of Standard Pacific Gallery Communities, which oversaw Front Street's development, helping people avoid long commutes was one of the ideas behind the community.

"The vision was to do the live-work in the master-planned community and the theory was, 'What do we do to alleviate traffic and keep people from driving so far to go to work, especially out [in Orange County]?' " says Mr. Spargo.

Mr. Nozicka says his home office has helped ease his family's lifestyle.  "We're saving a lot of time because we don't have to be in car for two hours a day and fight traffic. And I get to be around my wife more, which is great," says Mr. Nozicka. "So it's the best of both worlds. It's an ideal situation where you can walk your kids to school, have breakfast with your wife and then go to work without really leaving."

Mr. Spargo says his company wanted a development with a variety of home styles, including colonial, Cape Cod and Mediterranean designs. "Front Street is meant not to look like one project. It's very individual," says Mr. Spargo. Each home is slightly larger than 3,000 square feet, including the office area, which is about 600 to 700 square feet and located in the front portion of each home. The living space is situated in back of and above the office area. The living space and office area have separate entrances. Outdoor signs are permitted, and customer parking is available. While residents are not required to use their home as a work space, all do, according to Mr. Spargo.

Front Street is zoned to allow home-based businesses. This permits a business use within a home as long as the business portion meets certain commercial-building standards, such as having a handicapped-accessible bathroom, fire walls and sprinklers. There is a list of "allowed" businesses, although a prospective homeowner may ask the community association to consider businesses not on the list.

The last homes built in the development sold in June 2003 sold for between $803,000 and $848,000 -- a price per square foot on a par with other single-family homes in new Orange County developments, says Mr. Spargo. Some Front Street houses have since resold for about $1 million.

Creating separation between the private and professional spaces also was a priority with each home's design, says Mr. Spargo.

"Millions of people work from home, but they work off of their dining-room table, [in] the second bedroom or [in] some other borrowed space in the house, and their home and work life is intermingled," says Mr. Spargo. "Here, it's really separate, but not by too much. It provides some separation between home and work, but it gives people a chance to be home and do everything under one roof."

Not everyone thinks this concept will catch on. Terry Yapp, a real-estate agent with Associated Realtors in Mission Viejo, Calif., believes a concept like Front Street is a good idea because it could decrease small-business owners' real-estate costs and local commuter traffic, but he thinks it might be right only for certain individuals and businesses.  

"If [the owner] has a family, I don't know how well it would work. Even though you have the business portion of the property up-front on the first floor, it still seems like it might be kind of awkward for anyone who has a family, with children and their friends," says Mr. Yapp.

Even with clearly defined work and home areas, some Front Street residents who own their own businesses have difficulty leaving the office behind at the end of the day.

Bill and Maria Rosalino moved to Front Street last year and like that they no longer have to brook bumper-to-bumper traffic. Mr. Rosalino, an insurance agent, believes the neighborhood might offer opportunities for him to write new business. He says it's not always easy to "turn it off" when he leaves the office. "I think it's harder; it's not for everyone. But I try to take a break," he says.

Jeannette Currie, who opened a hair salon on Front Street 10 months ago, admits it's hard to resist answering her business line, no matter what time of day.

"One of the biggest challenges has been to set what we call 'home-biz boundaries,' " she says. "When the phone rings [after hours], it's very tempting to pick it up. After all, it could be a new client wanting to schedule an appointment. This was fine in the beginning, but after a while, we realized that we had to set the boundary. So now, if the phone rings, we let it go to voice mail and return the calls first thing in the morning."

Mr. Yapp, who sells properties in other parts of the Ladera Ranch community, is waiting to see if the live/work concept takes off. He notes that no other area builder has duplicated the idea.

While Mr. Spargo concedes that wrinkles remain with the concept -- mainly coordinating local residential-building codes with commercial-zoning requirements -- builders in California and other states have inquired about Front Street. 

"About three builders have come out here to talk to me about how to do it. What they're all having trouble with, which we did too, is getting the zoning and building code to work together," says Mr. Spargo. "This is a mixed-use concept and most building codes don't really have a thing called 'mixed use'. They have to make it up as they go."

The concept is working out well for Ms. Currie and her family.

"We are walking distance from parks, schools and the library, and we have a child and plan to have more. My husband also works from home, so rather then spending time commuting, we are able to spend more time with our child. This was perfect," she says.

-- Mr. Green is a free-lance writer in Chicago.

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