Planned Florida Town Will Be a Pet Project

A planned community in Florida will offer a concierge, day-care center, even birthday parties--for your pet. But it isn’t all fun: The community will foster study of how humans and animals interact.

Birchwood Acres, is to be built on 10,000 acres of ranchland near St. Cloud, Fla. Construction of 4,000 homes starts next year. Another 100 acres, donated by the developer, will serve as headquarters and research campus for the nonprofit Harmony Institute.

Harmony officials estimate that more than two-thirds of U.S. households have pets. But Martha Eastman Lentz, who heads the institute, says many homeowner organizations discourage them. “Our society needs to be building and providing so it’s convenient for you to have pets,” she says.

But building this community will mean more than removing “No Pets Allowed” signs. The complex will include bathrooms designed for pets and septic tanks so owners can easily dispose of pet waste.

Officials at Harmony Institute claim a 5% stake in Birchwood Acres. Its campus will include research for communities designed to be ecologically sensitive and animal-friendly.

The institute hopes to start a study of animal interaction similar to a heart disease study that has tracked 5,000 residents of Framingham, Mass., for 50 years. Medical studies show that animals can moderate blood pressure in their owners and that pet owners are more likely than others to survive heart attacks, says Alan Beck, a professor of animal ecology at Purdue University, one of several institute affiliates.

Donna Reichle, spokeswoman for the Community Assns. Institute of Alexandria, Va., identifies a community in Texas designed for horse owners. But this development for pets? This is news to her.

“I don’t think it sounds gimmicky,” says Reichle, whose group includes builders and homeowner associations among its 17,000 members.

The institute is named after Lentz’s mother, Margaret Harmony Eastman, who married into the photographic empire. She made sure animals were part of her children’s lives. Her mother’s daughter, Lentz insists that most pets will be welcomed. “Alligators,” she says, “come with the property.”