Great walkable, urban places—buildings, blocks, and neighborhoods—in small towns or big cities, are powerful economic and social engines, improving community health and resilience while promoting sustainability and equity.
The development process is complex and varied across scales and jurisdictions. Federal, state, and local rules dictate much of where and what can be built. Dozens of requirements for zoning, financing, building codes, infrastructure—to name a few—impose significant barriers to creating the type of vibrant and diverse places people want.
CNU advocates for changes that make it easier to build great places. We work to identify regulatory barriers, knowledge gaps, financing hurdles, and local inequalities that stand in the way of great urbanism. In response, we engage with governments, partners, professionals, and citizens at every level to make it easier to design and build places where people and businesses can thrive and prosper.
We can't do this alone. Together with a broad network of agencies, organizations, our members, and local advocates, CNU and our partners work to identify high-level issues that, when addressed, can dramatically accelerate the building of great places on the ground. As a national advocacy group, we are working to create a more responsive, sustainable, and equitable legal framework for creating and protecting the places people love.