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.
Even in the hinterland, communities are becoming enthusiastic about placing compact, mixed-use development around their train stations.
By Chad EmersonEnvironmental Law Institute, 2007, 104 pp., paperback, $22.46.
A Houston builder has hired Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company to design three sizable traditional neighborhood development (TND) projects, according to the Houston Chronicle. Andres Duany will lead a series of charrettes for Lovett Homes. The TNDs...
Sprawling Atlanta is exceedingly expensive for working-class families, according to a study by the Center for Housing Policy. Families with income between $20,000 and $50,000 in Atlanta spend an average of 29 percent of their income on housing and...
Joyce Marin of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, has been named executive director of the Allentown Economic Development Corp., which is involved in development and redevelopment projects in Pennsylvania’s third-largest city (pop. 106,000).
The US Green Building Council launched its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) pilot program, created with CNU and the Natural Resources Defense Council, in July. Approximately 250 projects registered...
Many of the most active development sites in metropolitan Washington owe part of their appeal to commuter rail stations within a few hundred feet. Here is what’s happening in the vicinity of a few Metro stations.
Tom Low and others at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) have created a matrix of more than 60 “Light Imprint New Urbanism” tools that can help new urbanists incorporate “sustainable” engineering methods into their designs. The “Light Imprint...
The EPA Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation, Division of Development, Community, and Environment — often known as the “smart growth office” — was facing potential severe budget cuts by the Bush Administration as of early summer. “The already...
A 59-year-old Biloxi woman, Katherine St. Amant, on June 21 received the keys to the first Katrina Cottage provided through the Mississippi Alternative Housing Program. The two-year pilot program operates with a $280 million federal grant. St. Amant...
Hamlets employing the latest energy-efficient technology, yet modeled after Old World villages, are expected to be built on 571 acres of the Florida Panhandle. The hamlets will be part of a new community called Sky, which is being developed with the...
The Congress for the New Urbanism continued to emphasize forward-looking leadership by naming four new members to its Board of Directors at the board’s May meeting in Philadelphia. The new appointments complete a transition in which all seven CNU...