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.
By Michael Lassell Disney Editions, 2004, 160 pp., hardcover $50. Those looking for a putdown of Celebration won’t find it in Celebration: The Story of a Town, which is a generally glowing account and assessment of Disney’s famous Florida new...
Crosland Inc. signed an agreement to develop two neighborhoods totaling 600 houses in Longleaf, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) north of Tampa, Florida. The move should speed the pace of development in Longleaf, which has relied on...
The third Australia and New Zealand conference on New Urbanism is being held March 11-13 in Sydney. The event, Australian Council for New Urbanism (ACNU), marks the first meeting of a group by the same name. The ACNU board of directors includes new...
Shaker Square, the octagonal shopping center where residents of Shaker Heights catch commuter trains to downtown Cleveland, celebrated its 75th anniversary in November with a new owner committed to overcoming the mistakes that left half of its 150,...
Port Royal is just a small town in South Carolina, but from a new urban perspective, it’s a town with a golden opportunity and with the right attitude and tools. The opportunity is a state-owned strip of land of 40-plus acres with over a mile of...
Five communities in three states received 2004 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which praised the communities for innovative approaches to development “that strengthen community identity...
Advocates of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the San Francisco Bay Area are talking about reducing the number of parking spaces that must be provided when parking lots at BART stations are redeveloped for housing and other uses. TOD projects...
A proposal to build a Target in north Milwaukee will test that city’s new standards for retail development. Developer Redmond Co. of Waukesha, Wisconsin, wants to put in a typical 130,000 sq. ft. box with a massive parking lot in front, according to...
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed a law in December that encourages development around bus and rail stations. The law authorizes establishment of Transit Revitalization Investment Districts (TRIDs) — partnerships between local governments,...
Of all the ways of developing land that prevail today in America, the housing pod is probably the most pervasive. The unintended consequence of a post-World War II policy of mass housing production on “efficient” cleared sites is this: the American...
Thirteen houses in Beall’s Hill in Macon, Georgia, have received facelifts to show developers what the neighborhood, which has an ambitious new urban redevelopment plan, can become. About $600,000 has been allocated for public improvements in the...
Kennecott Land’s Daybreak, in South Jordan, Utah, is off to a strong start. More than 200 houses were sold in its first six months, Kort Utley of Kennecott Land told New Urban News. The 4,200-acre project, planned by Calthorpe Associates, opened in...