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.
New rules have been adopted in Montgomery County, Maryland that could steer development into areas that are already urbanizing. The rules allow planners for the first time to consider public transportation when deciding where to permit development....
“It may be useful to think of cities as great carbon-reduction machines,” Armando Carbonell told a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy symposium Nov. 1. Carbonell, chair of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Institute, said, “We’ve got to...
Although new urbanists are sometimes criticized for taking a retro approach to architectural style, they have been consistently innovative in their approach to building typology. One example is the hybrid courtyard units in a tightly packed, mixed-...
Miami architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk will receive the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture, which now comes with $200,000 — twice as much money as in past years. Richard Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-...
Samuel Sherman Jr., cochair of the CNU XV local host committee, and a former suburban housing developer who has become a major force in Philadelphia’s development community since adopting New Urbanism as a guiding philosophy, joined the CNU Board in...
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute has released a toolkit to “help communities untangle the thicket of policies and procedures that get in the way of implementing smart growth strategies and sustainable urban development.” The tools were put...
Atlanta-based designer Lew Oliver, who has had a hand in many new urban developments across the US, won five gold awards and four silver awards in the annual Obie Awards of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association. Oliver, founder and principal...
Baltimore-based Ayers Saint Gross is expected to begin work in January on SmartCode land development rules for Long Beach, Mississippi. The responsibilities of Ayers Saint Gross will include drafting subdivision requirements for the city, which had...
The Virginia Department of Transportation, which sets standards not only for state highways but also for many community streets, has historically been an impediment to new urbanist development.
Sustainability policies are on the rise in governmental circles, and will increasingly influence the shape of urban development.
Washington, DC, adopted green building standards in 2006, and they went into effect in March 2007. Planning Director...
By Mark L. GillemUniversity of Minnesota Press, 2007, 384 pp., $24.95 paperback.
Geoffrey Anderson, who had headed the smart-growth program of the US Environmental Protection Agency since 2000, has been chosen to lead the advocacy group Smart Growth America. He will start work Jan. 21 as Smart Growth America’s president and CEO...