New Ruralism Communities In South Carolina

Finding a planned community in South Carolina for relocation or retirement doesn’t necessarily mean living behind a gate in a tightly packed neighborhood where everything looks the same.

If you’re like an increasing number of people looking to relocate or retire in South Carolina and your best place includes a quiet natural settings with wide-open spaces… you definitely want to look at a “New Ruralism” planned community.

If your not familiar, New Ruralism is billed as a relatively new concept but it’s actually a rediscovery of the need for a beneficial and sustainable interaction between rural and urban communities.

New Ruralism as public policy advocates less large development land use, sustainable agricultural practices and increased integration of rural and urban areas especially on the periphery of metropolitan areas.

Developers around the country and in South Carolina have taken the concerns of New Ruralism advocates to heart and adapted the concept in creating a variety of planned communities.

One of the great selling points for South Carolina relocation and retirement when it comes to New Ruralism communities is the sense that one can find a quieter, simpler life in some of the most beautiful natural settings imaginable.

A New Ruralism community is all about two things:

1. privacy and;
2. reconnecting with nature

Instead of compact housing developments, New Ruralism community home sites are much larger, often several acres in size.

Moreover, these homesteads are usually separated by expansive undeveloped open spaces.

These open spaces are generally shared by everyone in the community and often consist of undisturbed woodlands or wetlands, protected nature preserves and in some places cultivated agricultural land.

Along the same lines, while most planned communities are organized around promoting community interaction and involvement, the quiet, wide open spaces and private nature of New Ruralism communities allow for just the opposite leaving it up to you to decide how community oriented you want to be.

Also, don’t expect the same number of amenities and community facilities found in most planned communities (especially for retirees) in South Carolina because that’s not what New Ruralism communities are about.

When you think of New Ruralism communities for South Carolina relocation or retirement,  you probably think about the mountain preserve communities in western North Carolina, but in South Carolina you’re more likely to find a New Ruralism style communities near the coast and among the state’s many coastal islands.

The Bull Point community just outside Beaufort, SC rests on the site of a former plantation and bills itself as a nature and conservation community.

While in some respects like most planned communities in South Carolina, Bull Point epitomizes the Low Country lifestyle and contains several sections of classically inspired homes on two to five acres plots often separated by marshland and water.

To the south in Bluffton, SC not far from Hilton Head, SC is the Hampton Lake community that also contains elements of a New Ruralism community especially its many developments set along and within over 500 acres of lake and nature preserves.

A New Ruralism community might not be for everyone looking for South Carolina relocation or retirement, but if you value natural beauty, privacy and a simpler lifestyle what have you go to lose?

Check it out.

It might just be your best place to live.

Read what it is like to live in SC.  Before you move to South Carolina, make sure you have selected the Best Place for you to Live.

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About Bob Bencivenga

Bob Bencivenga

Bob Bencivenga is a professional site locator and location analyst for major corporations. Bob researches the growth of NC and SC to find the Best Places to Retire or Relocate that are still affordable.

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