A private community is a residential community that can be an association or a proprietary organization. Associations can include condominiums, residential associations or cooperatives.^[1]

Whereas governmental communities are financed with taxation, where taxes typically have little connection with benefits, private communities are financed as payments for benefits. In a hotel, for example, the public goods such as elevators and security are paid for from room charges.^[2][3]

One early American example was Lucas Place, laid out in 1851 in St. Louis, Missouri, the first of about 50 such private places unique to the city. Today, there are "60 million people who now live in roughly 300,000 private communities" in the United States ^[4].

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Voluntary community
• Proprietary community
• Gated community
• Homeowners association
• Planned community
• Spencer Heath, whose goal was to have cities and large land areas owned by single private owners, which would rent out the land and housing and provide all conceivable public services
• Spencer H. MacCallum