Developing trend: Here comes the neighborhood.(The Orlando Sentinel)

ORLANDO, Fla. _ In March 1999, Carlos Olivardia ventured to the southern end of Alafaya Trail to check out a development that was little more than a sprawling expanse of dirt, with a trailer for a sales office.

He listened to a nostalgic pitch describing a place "kind of like a town, but in the suburbs." With nothing more to go on than color-coded maps, Olivardia, who was starting a family and an Internet venture, made up his mind to move to Avalon Park instead of buying in downtown Orlando.

Days later, his sister and her husband made the same decision. Then came his business partner, his parents and some of his in-laws. And today, 19 members of Olivardia's extended family can walk or bike to each other's homes for Sunday night dinners.

"It's good for the family," his mother, Carmen Olivardia, said with a broad smile. "This place is clean. It's quiet. It's different."

Different, it seems, is a winner. In an area where homes are stamped out like so many little green Monopoly tokens, lots of folks are ready for a change.

It has been five years since Disney's Celebration popularized a trend once pooh-poohed by developers and builders as schmaltz. They said such traditional communities would never win out over gated neighborhoods, cul-de-sacs and big-box shopping centers surrounded by asphalt.

Reduce the idea to a formula and it's as simple as this: Put the front porch just a few feet…