Archives
Welcome to the archives of Better Cities & Towns, a publication founded by Robert Steuteville as New Urban News in 1996. This archive holds two decades of the best news and analysis on compact, mixed-use growth and development, from 1996 to 2015.
Home sales fell more precipitously in Queens in the past year than in any of New York City’s other four boroughs. One major exception to Queens’ drop-off has been brisk sales activity in Arverne by the Sea, a 127-acre mixed-use development that has...
Developers of new urban (NU) communities — founders — are often disappointed and rather surprised to find out that they are not universally beloved by homeowners.
Tysons Corner, one of America’s best-known, automobile-dependent edge cities, would become much more of a real city if a plan approved by the Fairfax County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors is carried out. In late September the supervisors endorsed a...
The Council for European Urbanism (CEU) and the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) are launching a joint effort to counter the effects of global warming.
CNU Board Chair Ray Gindroz has retired from the Board of Directors of Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh and is now principal emeritus and senior consultant to the firm. He continues to work with UDA on projects in Norfolk, Virginia; Boca Raton...
Its impact will partly depend on yet-to-be-determined greenhouse gas reduction targets for new development.
Rendering 1 caption (on page 1): An avenue in the downtown of Verano, a new urban development planned in San Antonio, Texas, is rendered below. See story on page 8 and commentary on page 2.
One of every five American households will contain at least one disabled resident by 2050, according to a report from Stanley Smith and Stefan Rayer of the University of Florida and Eleanor A. Smith, executive director of Concrete Change, a national...
General Growth Properties (GGP) submitted a plan to Howard County, Maryland, officials Oct. 1 that calls for building 5,500 townhouses and apartments and 1 million square feet of retail space during the next three decades in and around Columbia Town...
The first three homes at Brytan, a new 150-acre traditional neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida, have earned LEED Silver status by the US Green Building Council. According to planner Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company the homes are the first in...
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(All graphs are: (Residential land value per SF x Density (Units per Acre)
Studies of transit-oriented development show that rising materials...
The Hercules, California, City Council approved a new urbanist conceptual plan July 22 that calls for construction of 1,224 housing units, 42,000 sq. ft. of retail, 81,000 sq. ft. of offices, and 134,000 sq. ft. of flex space on 42 acres of the city...