In the lexicon of municipal planning, Kenmore is “density that works.”

The village, planners quickly point out, has a long history of treasuring and preserving its “streetscape and architectural fabric.”

Translation?

Kenmore is a special place to live.

So special the American Planning Association picked the Buffalo suburb as one of its “Top 10 Great Neighborhoods of 2009.”

Undetered by blustery weather, nearly 200 people gathered Saturday on Kenmore’s Municipal Green, to relish the village’s newfound national spotlight.

“We’re here to celebrate how America has caught on to what a great a place this is,” Village Historian Edward Adamczyk told the crowd.

Kenmore was singled out for its walkable design, parks and open space, and historic neighborhoods.

More than half of the village’s homes were built before 1925 in styles ranging from Victorian to American Craftsman and Foursquare.

Together, they sit in a village of 16,500 people within only 1.2 square miles, an urban area that ranks among the nation’s top 100 in density.

“The village is compact but not overcrowded,” said Gary Palumbo, the association official who presented the award Saturday. “And, of course, there’s the architecture.”

Palumbo noted that Kenmore is the only municipality as a whole to be honored as one of the association’s great neighborhoods this year.

The village stood out, he said, because of its long-standing commitment to planning and revitalization. Its zoning code, for example, dates back to the 1920s.

The association, in its announcement of the award, described Kenmore as a “compact, highly walkable” example of a first-string suburb that can help a metropolitan area reduce its carbon emissions.

The group, a national organization devoted to good planning, noted that Kenmore’s streets have sidewalks on both sides and nearly every home is with-in a quarter-mile walk of a bus stop.

In picking Kenmore, planners described the village as a place where people want to be, not only to visit, but to live and work.

“We have a past, and we have a future,” Adamczyk said Saturday, “and we have a present as one of the nation’s 10 great neighborhoods.”

Kenmore’s honor is the region’s second in three years. Two years earlier, the national association honored Elmwood Village as a top 10 neighborhood.

“It’s always good,” said Richard Guarino, a member of the association’s upstate chapter, “for little old Western New York to be known for something positive.”

The nine other great neighborhoods are in New Orleans; Houston; Pasadena, Calif.; Newport News, Va.; Franklin, Tenn.; Fargo,

N. D.; Portland, Ore.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Spokane, Wash.