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.
Edited by Stephanie E. Bothwell, Andres M. Duany, Peter J. Hetzel, Steven W. Hurtt, and Dhiru A. Thadani New Urban Press, 2004, 437 pp, $35 paperback. “As far as I’m concerned, everything is architecture, from silverware and furniture to...
Public agencies and community groups are becoming increasingly eager to use charrettes to plan new developments or to guide the redevelopment of areas in need of a makeover. And the National Charrette Institute (NCI) in Portland, Oregon, is...
“Urban initiative funds,” or UIFs, are on the rise. First the New Mexico Urban Initiatives Fund began operations and placed its initial investment — $1.5 million — in the $9.8 million Gold Avenue Lofts project in downtown Albuquerque. Now a second...
ACalifornia law explicitly stating that form-based codes are legal was signed in July by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after the measure was approved unanimously by the legislature. Although the law does not require municipalities to adopt new urban...
Robert Sitkowski, formerly with the law firm Robinson & Cole in Hartford, Connecticut, has moved to Chicago, where he now practices land use law at Freeborn & Peters. He can be reached at rsitkowski@freebornpeters.com.
Homebuilder D.R. Horton selected Sean Compton of TBG Partners to plan and entitle a 280-acre TND in Austin, Texas, called Pioneer Hill. This project will be the first to be developed under Austin’s 1997 TND ordinance, TBG says.
Doucette Homes’ Civano Sol development at Civano in Tucson, Arizona, won a Gold Nugget 2004 Award of Merit from the Pacific Coast Builders Conference and Builder magazine as “best sustainable/green residential project of the year.”
A new town for sign language users is being planned near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Laurent Company, spearheaded by Marvin Miller, who is deaf, and his hearing mother-in-law M.E. Barwacz, is working with new urbanist planner and engineer Peter...
Bob Regan and Tim Fabian have formed a nonprofit organization, Save Our Steps, to raise money to help preserve the hundreds of sets of steps that climb the hills of Pittsburgh (see June 2004 New Urban News). Information is available at www....
As Director of Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Dr. Richard Jackson did groundbreaking work identifying the public health problems with sprawl. Jackson and his colleague Dr. Howard Frumkin of the Rollins School of...
Barbara A. Nadel, editor in chief McGraw-Hill, 2004, 672 pp., $89.95. “The Oklahoma City bombing marked the beginning of a national, industrywide approach to security planning and building design to combat terrorism,” New York architect Barbara...
A study in central Texas indicates that pocket parks play a key role in making higher density palatable for homebuyers in a new urban community. The survey, “Buying New Urbanism,” found that small lot sizes, by themselves, face resistance in new...