Want a better neighborhood? Serenbe’s founder says to "Start in Your Own Backyard"

When Steve Nygren first bought a farmhouse in Chattahoochee Hill Country (now Chattahoochee Hills) in the early 1990s, it was meant to be a weekend retreat, a place for his family to unwind. But the quiet rural escape soon became something much bigger and more meaningful. When bulldozers began clearing nearby forests for development, Nygren, the founder of Atlanta restaurant group Pleasant Peasant Restaurants, realized he had to do something to protect the land he loved.

That moment spurred him to organize 500 landowners into the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance. They created a land-use plan that preserved 70 percent of the surrounding 40,000 acres for green space and agriculture, concentrating growth in walkable hamlets and villages. This was the blueprint for Nygren’s Serenbe , an