One of the most famous planned, corporate-developed communities in recent memory is Celebration, FL, originally developed by Disney. It's got a very Stepford fe

One of the most famous planned, corporate-developed communities in recent memory is Celebration, FL, originally developed by Disney. It's got a very Stepford feel to it. Almost like living in Main Street, USA in Disneyworld or Disneyland. Some people dig that, though. It's not unlike the community mentioned in this article. I wouldn't want to live there, but I can see the appeal to those who would, and I don't begrudge them their tastes. A little less extreme are some of the privately planned cities in Southern California, like Irvine or Mission Viejo. These are generally affluent "commuter cities" whose governments aren't necessarily privately run, but whose majority landholders (and de facto bosses) tend to be the original developers. I'd say the jury is still out on how successful these projects have been.[1] The SoCal privately planned communities have done pretty well for themselves, but they've benefitted tremendously from the expansion of the city, services, and infrastructure around and between them. It would seem much harder to make an isolated, self-sustaining community work. [1] As cities, that is. As corporations, they've done phenomenally well for their developers. The developer of Irvine is worth about $14 billion, which puts him in the running for richest man in Southern California.