Radburn is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located within Fair Lawn in

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. Radburn was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age".History
from the Radburn Association website Its planners,

Clarence Stein Clarence Samuel Stein (June 19, 1882 – February 7, 1975) was an American urban planner, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the garden city movement in the United States. Biography Stein was born in Rochester, New York into an upwardly ...

and Henry Wright, and its

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

Marjorie Sewell Cautley Marjorie Sewell Cautley (1891–1954) was an American landscape architect who played an influential yet often overlooked part in the conception and development of some early, visionary twentieth-century American communities. Early life Cautley ...

aimed to incorporate modern planning principles, which were then being introduced into England's Garden Cities, following ideas advocated by

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

Ebenezer Howard Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication '' To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'' (1898), the description of a utopian city in whi ...

, Sir

Patrick Geddes Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a British biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning ...

Introduction
from the Radburn Association website and

Clarence Perry Clarence Arthur Perry (1872 – September 6, 1944) was an American urban planner, sociologist, author, and educator. Perry devised the neighbourhood unit plan, a residential community scheme disseminated through the Regional Plan of New York and I ...

. Perry's

neighbourhood unit Generally the concept of the neighborhood unit, crystallised from the prevailing social and intellectual attitudes of the early 1900s by Clarence Perry, is an early diagrammatic planning model for residential development in metropolitan areas. It w ...

concept was well-formulated by the time Radburn was planned, being informed by

Forest Hills Gardens, Queens A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

, New York (1909–1914), a garden-city development of the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

. Radburn was explicitly designed to separate traffic by mode, with a

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

path system that does not cross any major roads at grade. Radburn introduced the largely residential " superblock" and is credited with incorporating some of the earliest culs-de-sac in the United States. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark District National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

in 2005, in recognition of its history in the development of the

garden city movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

in the 20th century.

Statistics

There are approximately 3,100 people in 670 families residing in Radburn. They live in 469 single-family homes, 48

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

s, 30 two-family houses, and a 93-unit

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

complex. An additional 165-unit townhouse development is under construction. Radburn's include of interior parks, four tennis courts, three

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

fields, two

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

fields, two swimming pools, and an

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

plaza. Young children and their parents can make use of two toddler playgroup areas, two playgrounds, and a toddler bathing pool. There is also a community center which houses administrative offices, library, gymnasium, clubroom, pre-school, and maintenance shops. For

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

purposes, Radburn is mostly a subset of

Census Tract A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exist ...

171 in

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

s included in the original

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

s for the development, the Radburn Association is a private association which is empowered to administer Radburn's common properties and to collect from the owners of properties quarterly association fees to cover the Association's maintenance and operation of communal facilities. The Association is also empowered to restrict development and decoration of Radburn properties in order to maintain a consistent "look" to the community. Use of Radburn Association facilities is limited to residents (though the parks themselves are ungated and the walkways are public property of the Borough.) Radburn's border with the rest of Fair Lawn is the

Bergen County Line The Bergen County Line is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The line loops off the Main Line between the Meadowlands and Glen Rock, with trains continuing in either direc ...

to the West; southeast of Fernwood Drive, Fulton Place, and Franciscan Way but northwest of Owen Avenue to the northwest; Radburn Road to the northeast; one block of Howard Avenue to the southeast; Alden Terrace to the northeast and east; one block of High Street to the South; Craig Road and its extension through Scribner Road to the East; and Berdan Avenue to the South. Radburn's other full-length east-west cross street is Fair Lawn Avenue, and its sole north-south cross street is Plaza Road.

Governance

Radburn residents vote for a volunteer Board of Trustees to govern the Association. Nine board seats are open to nomination and election on a rotating schedule. Any homeowner in good standing may self-nominate, or be nominated by any other homeowner in good standing. However, this was not the case before State law was amended in July 2017. In November 2006, a group of Radburn residents opposed to the current system of governance filed a lawsuit against the Radburn Association. The plaintiffs claim that Radburn's governance violates New Jersey state law and the

New Jersey State Constitution The Constitution of the State of New Jersey is the basic governing document of the State of New Jersey. In addition to three British Royal Charters issued for East Jersey, West Jersey and united New Jersey while they were still colonies, the sta ...

. The residents are represented by two public interest legal organizations: the New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center and The Community Law Clinic of The

Rutgers School of Law–Newark Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

. On April 1, 2008, the

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pra ...

awarded summary judgements for both sides in the democracy lawsuit. Judge Contillo found that Radburn's governance was legal as well as its membership. The Court ordered the Association to comply with the law by providing full financial disclosure to residents and amending its bylaws to support open trustee meetings four times each year. New Jersey Constitutional expert

Frank Askin Frank Askin (January 8, 1932 - July 1, 2021) was an American jurist and professor of law at Rutgers School of Law - Newark. Career He was appointed to the Rutgers faculty upon his graduation from that school with highest honors in 1966. Admitted t ...

of the Rutgers University School of Law at Newark, and his Clinic on Constitutional Law, joined the plaintiffs' ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' legal team for the appeals process, intending to affirm through the courts that the PREDFDA statute guarantees free elections in planned community government On June 17, 2010, the ''Moore v. Radburn'' litigation was finally put to rest by the New Jersey Supreme Court. The petition for certification filed by the 16 litigants was denied. In July 2017, Senate bill S2492 was signed into law by Governor Chris Christie, having passed unanimously in both the Senate and Assembly. The new law guarantees membership to all homeowners in New Jersey common interest communities, and requires that self-nomination must be allowed in executive board elections. The Radburn Association voted to adopt revised by-laws at a meeting in May 2017, some of which are inconsistent with several parts of the new law and other existing statutes. The 2017 by-laws revisions were later rescinded for irregularities in their adoption.

Facilities

The Radburn School, an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

located on the edge of the "B" park, is operated by the

Fair Lawn Public Schools The Fair Lawn Public Schools are a comprehensive community public school district serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from Fair Lawn in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, ...

. While many of its students are Radburn residents, it serves a larger district. The school, built in 1929, was designed by the architecture firm of

Guilbert and Betelle Guilbert and Betelle was an architecture firm formed as a partnership of Ernest F. Guilbert and James Oscar Betelle. The firm specialized in design of schools on the East Coast of the United States, with an emphasis on the " Collegiate Gothic" styl ...

. The building was expanded in 1955 and again in 2005. In 2016, the elementary school aged students of The Radburn School surpassed their fundraising goal of $60,000 through lemonade stands, rainbow bracelets sales, and a 5k race, but were denied permission to build the playground by The Radburn Association for aesthetic reasons. Several prominent Fair Lawn businesses exist in Radburn's business district, which is at the intersection of Fair Lawn Avenue and Plaza Road, two important arteries in Fair Lawn. Many of these businesses are within the Radburn Plaza (clock tower) building, a signature landmark of Radburn and Fair Lawn itself. (The building suffered a severe fire several years ago and was recently restored in its prior image.) Nearby stands the Old Dutch House, a

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

built during the time of

Dutch colonization of the Americas The Netherlands began its colonization of the Americas with the establishment of trading posts and plantations, which preceded the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch East Indies, Dutch in Asia. While the first Dutch fort in Asia ...

. Facing the Plaza Building is the Radburn railroad station, built by the Radburn developers along the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

line (later

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

) and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Passenger service operates there today on the

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

Radburn Design Housing

The 'Radburn design' has been formalised in the Radburn design for public housing; the design has been used in the US, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The design was an influence on

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's design for Disney World.

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Radburn include: *

Steven Ehrlich Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA (born June 12, 1946) is an American architect based in Culver City, California. He is the founding partner of the practice Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, formerly known as Ehrlich Architects. Life and career Eh ...

(born 1946),

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who is the founding partner of the practice Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, formerly known as Ehrlich Architects * Philip Plotch (born 1961), professor, author, and urban planner.Curley Jr., Michael W
"State says elections must be held in Fair Lawn's Radburn community"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...

'', March 5, 2018. Accessed August 24, 2018. "Phil Plotch, a representative of Radburn United, said that after the DCA's decision, the community held its first-ever question-and-answer session for board candidates."

References

External links

Official website of The Radburn AssociationRadburn Citizens' AssociationBorough of Fair Lawn
* * {{Authority control Fair Lawn, New Jersey Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Bergen County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places Planned cities in the United States Populated places established in 1929 Radburn design housing estates Unincorporated communities in Bergen County, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in New Jersey 1929 establishments in New Jersey