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.
Timothy Rood, who coordinated Louisiana’s post-hurricane planning as a principal at Calthorpe Associates, has left Calthorpe to become a partner in Community Design + Architecture in Oakland, California. He will continue consulting for Forest City...
Table title: Suburban vs. Urban Energy Use
A few places in California have started experimenting with “traffic-reducing housing” — residences that are made available first, or at lower cost, to people who work nearby or who pledge to commute by...
The process the City of Cambridge used to establish a planning framework for substantial development in eastern Cambridge, including the NorthPoint project, makes up a chapter of Douglas Porter’s recent book, Breaking the Development Logjam: New...
A 160-acre, 1,000-unit traditional neighborhood development (TND) was planned in early September for a quarter-section greenfield site in Omaha, Nebraska. The organic nature of the block structure created by planner Placemakers and lead urban...
They’ve been called “mortgage helpers in the sky,” and they are a new twist on the granny flat. They are “flex suites,” or condominiums that are designed to be subdivided. Households can close off a portion of the unit, designed as a small...
CNU board treasurer Stephanie Bothwell has been selected as the second Orton Family Foundation Fellow. This relatively new fellowship program supports land-use innovation efforts in an attempt to encourage new approaches to the land use planning...
The City of Moss Point, Mississippi, adopted the SmartCode and the plan from the Mississippi Renewal Forum for the redevelopment of downtown in October, a year after the forum. The adoption allows the city to apply for funds to move the city hall...
Governing named Ventura, California, City Manager Rick Cole one of the magazine’s “public officials of the year,” saying he “has excelled in both elected and appointed roles, promoting innovative mixed-use development that reflects community values...
Transit-oriented development project in Oakland highlights questions of how much retail to build and how to handle parking.Fruitvale Village in Oakland, California, has become a reluctant symbol of the difficulties that transit-oriented development...
With some exceptions, such as Peter Calthorpe’s work, new urbanists have focused more of their attention on integrating retail into residential areas than on creating what policy specialists call a “jobs/housing balance.” A new study by Robert...
About 70 architects, planners, developers, and other new urbanists toured Paris, France, for four days in late September with the Seaside Pienza Institute. The three founders of the Institute, architects Ray Gindroz and Leon Krier and developer...
Cagan Crossings was designed 15 years ago by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) as a high-density neighborhood with affordable rental units near Orlando, Florida. For a long time, only the latter were built, with a small amount of mixed-use....