--- Technically, the Ford Plantation is a second-home community that also maintains a private club. In order to use the sporting facilities, homeowners must be admitted to the club (the initiation fee is currently $85,000), which a managing body, not the homeowners, controls. "we're looking for residents who will be good citizens of the community and good stewards of the land," says partner Steve Schram. "Yes, we've turned a few people down at this point for club membership, though it's had nothing to do with nationality, race or relative wealth. We just want this to be a place for responsible, civic-minded people." --- No question the partners are targeting an audience with traditional tastes. Buyers must submit the credentials of their chosen architect, who must agree to follow a set of building guidelines based on classical models (written up for Ford by Donald Rattner, of Ferguson Shamamian & Rattner Architects, LLP). And final plans must be approved by an architectural review board. Such restrictions will have their rightful detractors - after all, plenty of tasteful, civic-minded communities in this country have moved beyond classical building principles, from Sea Ranch, in northern California, to New Canaan, Connecticut. But on of Ford's rules does not seem particularly inspired: a house may not exceed 6,000 square feet, excluding porch areas. That's not exactly small, but neither is it ungainly, considering the lost sizes. And howeowners are being encouraged to think about breaking up their allowed square footage into a smaller house with an outbuilding or two - a garage or guest cottage - rather than putting up a single dwelling.   Whimsy has its day in the studio (above), where an alternative living room becomes home to a collection of Chinese kites. Old and new furnishings share the space: an 1820s American sofa and camphor-wood trunk set off Summit Furniture's square table, a rattan lounge chair from Ralph Lauren Home Collection, and Keith Haring's child's chair. continued on next page