Little British Boxes: Tesco Town, UK

Tesco is the new face of urban development.

Britain's largest retailer is getting into the housing business, planning "supermarket-led mixed-use development proposals." Its goal: to expand from four "mini-villages" to 3,656 new Tesco-built deveopments throughout the UK.

Already being dubbed "Tesco Towns" by the British press, the planned developments will include homes, schools, public spaces, recreation centers, swimming pools, and of course, Tesco-branded superstores galore.

Tesco's move from selling home goods to actual homes and communities is stirring up some controversy.

Sir John Sorrell, retiring chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the UK’s official adviser on architecture and design, is one prominent opponent. Sorrell's chief concern, as he told the Guardian, is commercially-branded communities.

"Retailers don't just want to build a new supermarket nowadays," he commented. "They want to redevelop town centres, with housing and shopping streets. Our concern is not only the quality of this kind of development – which is generally very poor – but the way in which architecture and places are created in the image of the retailer."

Sandra Semple, mayor of the 7,500-resident Seaton, told the Guardian that she's outraged the Devon town's council has approved a housing development built by Tesco, which already operates 15 stores within 25 miles of the quaint seaside community.

"This town has been sold to Tesco. We are not at the moment a 'Tesco Town', but this will make us one. We've lost our individuality, our identity – the very things that make this place special," she told the Guardian. "It's an old-fashioned town on a gorgeous bay, with nothing but individual shops, and no chainstores. Every other store is an individual trader."

Ironically, the retail brand apparently never intended to be in community development, but found that offering to build schools, parks and other community amenities eased the process of getting local permits for its stores.

A Tesco spokesman defended the company’s ‘mixed-use’ development, which began in 1997, as benign and beneficial: "These are urban areas which have not received investment for a number of years. We are willing to invest, and that kind of investment has to be applauded and welcomed. We're looking at providing more than 2,000 jobs in these areas that can benefit the community for years to come.”

So far, the third largest global retailer (behind Wal-Mart and Carrefour) isn't planning on exporting the concept to the US, where it's had a hard time with its Fresh & Easy grocery chain.

Just as well, given America's history with branded communities such as Disney's Celebration, Florida, and the Levittown-style suburbs mocked in Pete Seeger's song, Little Boxes, which was remade for Showtime's Weeds series.

Google towns, meanwhile, are a different matter altogether.