The great city planner John Nolen was way ahead of his time 90 years ago when he mapped out a plan for the then-new city of Venice that stressed walkability and human scale, with distinct neighborhoods built around playgrounds or parks—all within strolling distance of a few-blocks-long shopping district along Venice Avenue.

Today, while the huge new master-planned developments planned for east and south Venice are grabbing all the headlines—6,000 homes are forecast to be built within the next 10 years in northeast Venice alone, says city manager Ed Lavallee—a quiet building boomlet is taking place on the historic Island of Venice. Bounded on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and on the east by the Intracoastal Waterway, with great natural beauty and an increasingly lively restaurant and shopping scene, it’s the most desirable part of a very desirable city, thanks to Nolen’s original vision.

Here’s a look at what’s happening on the Island.

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