The 600-acre lake at Macauley Companies’ WaterLace in Fayetteville.

Assimilating into the surrounding community can be a daunting task when relocating to a new city. Finding friends with similar interests within that community can be even more difficult without a preliminary plan of action. Fortunately, for those relocating to Atlanta, this balmy Southern metropolis boasts many housing options that make winning friends just a bit easier— with one such option being recreational communities. Throughout Metro Atlanta, developers have ramped up efforts to build recreational communities offering all-inclusive amenities that often mean never having to venture beyond neighborhood property lines. Whether it’s hitting the fairway, braving the high dive, thrashing opponents on the tennis, basketball or volleyball courts, or taking your favorite thoroughbred out for a canter, Metro Atlanta offers plenty of recreational communities to suit any home buyer’s needs.

Metro Atlanta real estate broker Susan Van Dyke of Heritage Real Estate Brokers, Inc., sells a lot of homes in recreational communities and also recently purchased a home in one such neighborhood for herself and her family. “Families with kids choose swim/tennis neighborhoods so that their kids will have activities to enjoy without needing to leave the neighborhood,” Van Dyke says.

Bill Toll, land development manager for Ryland Homes concurs. “People want things for their kids to do, but they don’t want them to need to leave the neighborhood,” Toll says. “It’s not a daycare center, but it’s a safe place for the kids to go.” It is for that very reason that Ryland Homes offers everything from indoor/outdoor tennis to resort-style swimming pools with children’s playscapes at its many Metro area communities.

However, even home buyers without kids can enjoy recreational community amenities. At Ryland’s Douglas County community Brookmont, residents can enjoy more than just swim and tennis—the community also offers basketball and a fitness center. At the builder’s Acworth-based community Centennial Lakes, the amenities include volleyball, basketball, two lakes, two playgrounds and a pool with water slide. At Ryland’s James Creek in Cumming, in addition to a swimming pool, jogging and hiking trails, and indoor and outdoor tennis courts, the community even offers billiards.

Centennial Lakes offers fabulous amenities such as walking trails, tennis and basketball.

Ryland and other developers such as Sivica Homes and Traton Homes also are adding green space galore, including nature preserves, park space and walking trails, to attract nature enthusiasts, but it’s not only outdoor lovers who enjoy the outdoor living space in the long run.

A Sivica community currently under development in Canton, Park Village is one of Cherokee County’s first “wired communities”—community intranet allows residents to interact—but it is the nine-acre community park, nature trail with wildlife observation area, clubhouse with full fitness center, pavilion with fire pits, grills and picnic tables, and aquatic center with lap lanes and water features that really attract those looking for a community feel.

Traton Homes, like Sivica and Ryland, has several recreational neighborhoods under development, but it is its Barnes Mill development nestled in Smyrna’s Concord Covered Bridge Historic District that has been Cobb County’s No. 1-selling single-family residential community for the last two years. Also featuring homes by Red Oak Construction, Barnes Mill offers 50 acres of green space with walking and biking trails, tennis courts, clubhouse and swimming pool, as well as direct access to the Silver Comet Trail.

Van Dyke’s new family home backs up to the national forest maintained by the Army Corp. of Engineers, and it offers five miles of wooded walking trails just outside the back door. “Every day, I see at least 10 people walking or biking on the trails,” Van Dyke says. “We’ve never spent so much time in our own neighborhood, and we save money because we never have to pay for something to do.”

Another of Traton’s nearly complete ventures, the Overlook at Marietta Country Club, features a nine-hole golf course in addition to its immense swim, tennis and clubhouse amenities. Several of Ryland’s recreational communities also offer golf courses. For example, Heron Bay in Locust Grove features a golf course, playground, tennis courts, soccer field, hiking and biking trails, as well as boating and fishing amenities.

No matter if it’s golf, swim, basketball, tennis or hiking that first attracts home buyers, recreational neighborhoods offer a feeling of community that may be more difficult to find in other types of neighborhoods.

Barnes Mill in Smyrna offers lots of amenities with its homes featuring  fine interior details.

“Recreational neighborhoods attract active people who already enjoy the outdoors,” Van Dyke says. “Home buyers pay more for recreational communities, because most people enjoy getting outside and talking to neighbors. The amenities give neighbors something in common that acts as an ice-breaker.”

Perhaps in the end, the pull to neighborhoods offering golf, swim, tennis, volleyball, basketball, equestrian and a plethora of naturalist activities really boils down to feeling a part of the larger community.

“I’ve met more neighbors in the nine months since we’ve moved into our new home than I met in four years living in our former home,” says Van Dyke. “I enjoy getting to know people with common interests in my neighborhood.” Toll sums it up nicely. “Everybody is just looking for that community feel,” he says.