“Imagine a city with high rise blocks and parks laid out like a checkerboard. Every building would be across the street from a park.”

Years ago, I told my friend Will about my zany plan for a city.

“I’d live in Francisburg,” Will said.

And ever since, the name stuck.

I’ve had a plan for a city in my head for at least a decade. And since this blog is all about the future, I thought I’d share it with you.

Tell me what you think! Am I crazy, or would you live in Francisburg too?

The Plan for Francisburg

At first, Francisburg would be small. We’ll start with 1 square mile, about the size of Hoboken, NJ or the West Village, two charming neighborhoods in my area.

All of Francisburg would be laid out in blocks. Every block would have either buildings or a park.

The blocks would be laid out in checkerboard fashion. Imagine the black squares with buildings and white squares with parks.

At first, we’d only open 4 blocks for development. There would be no limits on building height.

The limited land and easy zoning means that the blocks with buildings would be full of high rises. These high rises would be mixed use, making it easy to access everything you need from work to groceries to nightlife.

Every 8 blocks, we’d have a Megapark. This would be 4 contiguous blocks of nothing but park.

Over time, as the building blocks fill up, we’d release more to development.

An Urban Planner Weighs In

I recently met with the founder of a cool startup. And, miracle of miracles, he just happened to be an urban planner in his former life. I explained my idea for Francisburg.

“Tell me why this is a terrible idea,” I said.

“It’s not a terrible idea,” he replied. “This could go one of two ways. Barcelona actually has a superblock layout like this.”

Ooh, one of my favorite cities. Go on…

“But it’s also a lot like Le Corbusier, the high rise in a park. And that turned into housing projects.”

Uh oh.

“So the key is to make it mixed use,” he added.

Mixed use is definitely the direction I’d go. I want to be able to get everything I need within a short walk, just like I do here in the NYC area.

I would also add that housing projects are full of desperately poor people. Any such agglomeration would probably see some issues.

Francisburg would be highly desirable. Who wouldn’t want to live in a beautiful new building surrounded by parks, right?

Can You Get it Built?

Can we actually get this thing built? Probably…

To be useful, Francisburg can’t be in the middle of nowhere. I want it within 60 minutes commute of a major city.

And it just so happens, there’s 3.75 square miles of land for sale just 51 minutes from downtown Austin, Texas.

And what beautiful land it is! Gently rolling hills and pretty little trees and shrubs that could be incorporated into the park blocks.

Best of all, it has almost no restrictions on development.

Even if the price is high, the value of what you could build here would more than make up for it.

Austin just might be the hottest city in America right now — who wouldn’t want to be in a beautiful new town nearby? Add in driverless Waymos, and that commute looks like a breeze.

Wrap-Up

I’d kill to see this city built! It’s absolutely doable and would be hugely profitable.

I am in tech, not real estate. But if I ever see a project like this, I just might have to pick up and move.

What do you think? Would you live in Francisburg?

More on development:

Apartments Are Banned from 76% of San Francisco

YIMBY Is Working Wonders in New Zealand

Why Manufactured Housing Won’t Fix High Housing Costs

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