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.
n the mountains of western North Carolina, planning isn’t all that popular. Three of the Tar Heel State’s seven westernmost counties have no subdivision regulations, and when planning is proposed, some longtime residents deride it as “socialism.”...
A large-scale transit-oriented development (TOD) is being planned about 15 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The proposed development, called Ho’opili, includes 12,000 units on 1,600 acres in a series of walkable neighborhoods with mixed-use town...
Ward Davis, developer of Ruskin Heights, a TND in Fayetteville, Arkansas, explains why many developers have not rushed to do New Urbanism — despite its profitability and market advantages. “TNDs are more profitable, but they take a whole lot more...
King of Prussia, the Philadelphia region’s largest “edge city,” is getting a walkable downtown, according to Dennis Maloomian, president of Realen. Realen is developing the Village at Valley Forge — which, although alliterative, is something of a...
More “coach houses” will be built along alleys in Vancouver, Canada, beginning next year. More apartments will also be fitted out above garages on the alleys (or “lanes,” as they’re called in Canada). And for the first time, property owners will be...
Since street network connectivity affects all new urbanist projects (and too many good projects are held back by a lack of traditional urban street grids beyond their borders), both individual urbanists and the overall movement will benefit from CNU...
The HOK Planning Group has opened up an urban design and landscape architecture office in Denver. Staffing the office will be David Amalong, vice president and director; Robb Berg, senior associate; and Jesse Michael, landscape architectural...
About 11 blocks of Granville Street, historically one of the premier shopping streets in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, will get a $20.8 million (Canadian) ($20.4 million US) makeover, starting in September. The street’s retailing started...
By Stacy MitchellBeacon Press, 2007, 336 pp., $15 paperback
Waveland, Mississippi, one of the municipalities most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, has turned away from new urbanist rebuilding plans. Planner and architect Robert Orr, who participated in the Mississippi Renewal Forum in October, 2005, reports...
The US Environmental Protection Agency has created a suggested stormwater permit framework geared to encouraging higher-density, mixed-use development and “low-impact” runoff management techniques. The EPA permit framework is voluntary, but it...
The City of Hercules, California, has been dragging its feet on adopting a master plan for the final 40 acres of a large new urban waterfront development that has been under construction in central Hercules for the past seven years (see March 2005...