Product Profile: Culdesac
INDUSTRY
housing
Category
apartment management and development
product Profiled
apartments built and managed by Culdesac Tempe
H-Score
82
ranked 1st of 13 within the housing industry
ranked 1st of 76 overall
product description
Culdesac is building and managing the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US. The 1,000-person development is based in Tempe, Arizona, and welcomed its first residents in May 2023. Culdesac does not provide residential parking spaces or allow privately owned cars in its development. It does provide comprehensive mobility benefits and on-site retail such as grocery, dining, retail, and more.
who’s affected
Culdesac currently has one location, Culdesac Tempe, which started to open up to renters in 2023. It serves people renting apartments in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Units rents for rates that are comparable to similar-sized apartments in nearby locations. Fifty-seven (57) percent of apartment renters in the US have household incomes of less than $50,000 per year.(1)
influence on health-related behaviors
EATING
slight to moderate positive influence
Proximity to grocery stores with healthy food options can positively influence eating habits. One metric of a neighborhood’s food environment is whether it is characterized by the USDA as “low access to food stores.”(2) Culdesac’s Tempe development will include a Street Corner Urban Market, a small fresh food grocery and convenience store, within a 5-minute walk.(3) Culdesac notes that 10% of the store will be reserved for fresh foods. The neighborhood is not considered a USDA low-access neighborhood.
- Review the food environment – both access to fresh foods and prevalence of unhealthy food outlets – as part of the decision of where to locate future properties. Use the potential of aggregated demand that a new apartment property would create to encourage investment in local fresh food outlets like grocery stores.
- Facilitate home cooking through:
- experimentation with provision of indoor hydroponic gardening appliances
- establishment of community gardens within properties
- partnerships to provide discounted memberships to local community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms
- partnerships to provide discounted grocery delivery services or meal kit subscriptions
- experimentation with the promotion of food sharing apps to help residents share excess groceries
PHYSICAL ACTVITY
moderate to strong positive influence
Culdesac’s influence on physical activity derives from its focus on shifting transportation habits away from automobiles and towards more active modes of transportation, including bicycles, scooters and public transportation.
Being a car-free neighborhood, Culdesac Tempe has placed a heavy emphasis on micromobility, with scooters situated throughout the neighborhood such that residents will never be more than a 1-minute walk away from one.(4) It will have parking spaces for 1,000 bikes -- one per person. For travel outside the neighborhood, it will offer discounts on Lyft car share and free rides on the Phoenix Metro.
Culdesac Tempe is designed as a 5-minute city, with a coffee shop, grocery/convenience store, restaurant, and bike shop all within five minutes walking distance for residents.(5) Culdesac Tempe includes a fitness center, with exercise classes, a swimming pool and two miles of walking/bike paths.(6)
- Provide bike storage and bike repair facilities at Culdesac Tempe and future properties.
Sleeping
slight to moderate positive influence
Culdesac notes that it has designed its buildings with three sides of natural light, which is more than typical apartment buildings, thus offering more daylight exposure to its residents. There is some evidence that daylight exposure through windows can positively affect sleep.(7)
Smoking is associated with poor sleep and designating a community smoke-free discourages smoking among its residents. Culdesac Tempe is a smoke-free community.
To the extent that Culdesac’s design influences physical activity and time spent outdoors, it could indirectly influence sleep as both of those behaviors are positively correlated with better sleep.
- Promote healthy circadian rhythms by installing circadian LED lighting systems that adjust color temperature to mimic natural light throughout the day.
- Monitor indoor air quality, as it has shown to influence sleep(8) and mitigate where it is poor.
- Provide smart thermostats and appropriate instructions in order to optimize nighttime temperatures for better sleep.
- Use soundproofing and other acoustic design techniques, such as sound-absorbing materials, to reduce noise that could interfere with sleep.
Engaging Socially
moderate positive influence
Culdesac’s emphasis on walkability and local attractions should create opportunities for casual social interaction amongst its residents.
Culdesac plans to open a co-working space in its Tempe location in 2024.(9) This approach offers a more social work-from-home experience than working from one’s own apartment.
At Culdesac Tempe, the residential units are built around courtyards, designed to be “outdoor living rooms” for social gatherings and interactions.(10) Fifty-five (55) percent of its land is dedicated to public space.(11)
Culdesac hosts weekly open-air market events to promote social interactions among residents and the broader community.(12)
- Engage with residents to understand social interests and develop social programming to foster social interaction and bonding over common interests.
- Offer an app for residents to engage with each other and to coordinate plans.
- Create arbitration/mitigation plans for neighbor disputes.
Getting Outdoors
moderate positive influence
The provision of courtyards designed as “outdoor living rooms” and the overall design as a walkable “5-minute city” would seem to facilitate spending time outdoors.
Access to public parks can also encourage people to go outdoors. Culdesac’s Tempe location is within a 10-minute walk from a public park.(13)
Culdesac Tempe offers two miles of walking/bike paths.
Notes
Household Incomes. National Multifamily Housing Council website, accessed November 10, 2023.
The “low-access to food” designation means that a significant portion of residents of the Census tract are more than one mile (if urban) or more than 10 miles (if rural) from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store. See U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food Access Research Atlas: Measuring Access to Food.
Culdesac website, accessed November 14, 2023.
Culdesac Tempe Announces First-of-its-Kind Mobility Program to Make Car-Free Living a Reality. BusinessWire, September 8, 2021.
Culdesac website, accessed November 14, 2023.
Culdesac website, accessed November 14, 2023.
M. Boubekri et al. Impact of Windows and Daylight Exposure on Overall Health and Sleep Quality of Office Workers: A Case-Control Pilot Study. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Volume 10, Issue 06.
Jianhong Liu et al. Air pollution exposure and adverse sleep health across the life course: A systematic review. Environmental Pollution. Volume 262 (July 2020).
Culdesac website, accessed November 14, 2023.
Culdesac website, accessed November 16, 2023.
Jessica Boehm. First look: Culdesac brings car-free living to car-centric Phoenix - Axios Phoenix. Axios Phoenix. August 2, 2023.
Sydney Huyge. One Step at a Time: How Culdesac Tempe is Making the Case for Carless Communities. Arizona Foothills. September 18, 2023.
Based on a geographical analysis using ParkServe, a tool provided by the Trust for Public Land.