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.
A form-based redevelopment code was recently approved for Blue Springs, Missouri, a city in the Kansas City area. The code was written by 180 Degrees Design Studio. The new zoning classifications are designed to streamline approval of redevelopment...
Geoff Dyer and Jaydean Boldt have ended their partnership in Civic Design Group in Calgary, Alberta, and established two separate firms. Dyer’s new firm, T|Six Office for Western Urbanism, will work on transit-oriented developments and other new...
The committee putting together the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development program (LEED-ND) was overwhelmed this spring by the number of applications it received from people wanting their projects included in the...
General Growth Properties, the nation’s second-largest owner of shopping malls, has decided to start redeveloping its more than 200 properties by adding housing, offices, hotels, and other elements — and applying New Urbanism’s techniques in some...
A new website for Katrina Cottage-related efforts has been established, providing links to designers, builders, and distributors: www.katrinacottagehousing.org
The first 1,500 acres of a 55,000-acre new urban development was planned near Albuquerque, New Mexico, in April. The developer, SunCal Companies of Irvine, California, is attempting its first traditional neighborhood development, one of the largest...
More than 20,000 bicycles are to be made available at 1,450 rental stations in Paris by year’s end. A company called Cyclocity is working with the city to establish the bike rental system, The Washington Post reported March 24. Renters will pay a...
A plan for Sandywoods Farm, an affordable community for artists in Tiverton, Rhode Island, received an award from CNU New England during the chapter’s annual conference, held at the end of March in Lowell, Massachusetts. Donald Powers Architects of...
The Miami Planning Advisory Board approved Miami 21, a comprehensive plan to guide development along with a new zoning code based on the SmartCode. The City Commission is scheduled to vote on Miami 21 in June. “An approval of the Miami 21 plan means...
Dan Parolek and Karen Parolek, principals in Opticos Design in Berkeley, California, are co-authoring a book on form-based codes with Paul Crawford of Crawford Multari & Clark in San Luis Obispo. Wiley Press is to publish it in spring 2008....
Terra Land Group, which produced the Town Commons traditional neighborhood development in Howell, Michigan, is now turning to inexpensive live-work units as a way of coping with the current housing market — sluggish in much of the nation and...
New urbanists will have to work on a smaller scale and abandon greenfield projects in the future, author James Howard Kunstler predicted in a speech to the Congress for the New Urbanism in Philadelphia in mid-May.
Kunstler, who is popular among...