New Urbanism movement brings the city to the suburbs

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Right now, city hall is in a doublewide trailer where the power just went out.

But if Mayor Pam Fogarty has her way, a new municipal building, still in her imagination, will become part of a new chapter in this growing town's story.

The mayor and other supporters, with design help from a firm known for pioneering the New Urbanism movement in architecture, are planning a place to bring people together, where they can walk the streets and pass time, and where a sense of community can flourish.

Dardenne Prairie is getting a downtown.

Once an agricultural community with fields of corn, wheat and soybeans and the occasional cattle farm dotting the landscape, Dardenne Prairie is located about 35 miles west of St. Louis. It is a stone's throw from the two Missouri cities that are growing most rapidly, Wentzville and O'Fallon.

Today, bedroom communities have sprouted in Dardenne Prairie's pastures, and franchise stores line the roads into and out of town. Its population has expanded by about three-fourths, from about 4,000 people at the start of this decade to nearly 7,000 in 2005, according to U.S. Census figures.

But, Fogarty says, her little city is missing something. "Everybody wants a third place. You have your work. You have your home, but everybody wants a gathering place," says Fogarty, a mother of five. Her reference is a nod to sociologist Ray Oldenburg who defines the third place as "a setting beyond home and work (the 'first' and 'second' places respectively) in which people relax in good company and do so on a regular basis."