Sandy Smith wrote:

Oddly enough, the carless apartment community now rising on 17 acres next to a light-rail station there is called Culdesac. Set to open in 2022, the $170 million Culdesac Tempe is being billed by its developer, also called Culdesac, as “the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the U.S.” Residents who rent apartments at Culdesac Tempe must abide by clauses in their leases that prohibit them from parking a car anywhere within a quarter-mile of the community.

To sweeten the deal, Culdesac is offering a wide array of carrots to encourage residents to ditch car ownership. Included in the rent: complimentary Lyft Pink subscriptions, discounted fees for Bird scooters, an Envoy car-share membership and free unlimited Valley Metro transit passes. The development itself will have a plaza with scooter docks, car-share parking spaces and ride-hail pickup zones next to the light-rail station.

In addition, the 761-unit apartment community is designed to allow residents to access some basic everyday needs on foot: it will also have a grocery store, cafe and co-working space.

The community’s general manager, Lavanya Sunder, told CityLab that so far, tenants are eagerly chomping on the carrots. “We’re finding that most people moving in are not planning to keep their cars,” she said. “They don’t have a car now or are planning on selling it, partly because we will have this multitude of mobility options onsite.”