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.
Plans are progressing for a 110-mile Texas commuter rail line running from San Antonio to Georgetown, 30 miles north of Austin. The Austin-San Antonio Intermunicipal Rail District selected PBS&J and its team of eight subconsultants to provide...
The Smart Growth Network has published Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation. As the name implies, this is the second volume, and offers useful advice and quality illustrations on public policy for planners and elected...
Pulte Homes, the nation’s largest residential builder, paid $8.57 million in early January to purchase approximately 480 acres in Civano, a development on the southeast fringe of Tucson that combines principles of New Urbanism and environmental...
Coatesville, Pennsylvania, a faded 11,000-population steel town 46 miles west of Philadelphia, is trying to move forward with ideas that were generated last October in a charrette organized by the Knight Fellows in Community Building at the...
The City of Claremont, California, has approved two development agreements with the Tolkin Group of Pasadena to expand and redevelop the city’s downtown. The Claremont Village Expansion project calls for 61,000 square feet of ground-level retail and...
Victoria Gardens — a new downtown for Rancho Cucamonga, California — broke ground in September 2003. Designed by Field Paoli, it is being developed by Forest City. Victoria Gardens will be anchored by three department stores, a movie theater, and a...
An article in the January-February New Urban News about a surge of redevelopment in long-depressed parts of Washington, DC, mistakenly described several projects — near 14th and U Streets, in the Howard University-LeDroit Park neighborhood, and...
The cranky path of a 2,500-year-old canal is the route that architect Bill Dennis has chosen for “Canal Walk,” the narrow main neighborhood street to be built in a Tucson development called Rio Nuevo. “The remains of the canal were found about six...
New president/CEO will try to heighten federal encouragement for mixed-use development.
Influencing federal housing policy is going to be a top goal of the Congress for the New Urbanism under its new president and CEO, former Milwaukee Mayor...
Celebration Company, a real estate
development division of the Disney Company, sold the Celebration, Florida, town center Jan. 21 to Lexin Capital, a New York-based private investment firm. Neither party disclosed the price. However, GlobeSt.com...
Homes are under construction in Wabash Crossing, formerly called the Near North Neighborhood, in Decatur, Illinois. The 120-acre project is partly funded by a Hope VI grant of $34.9 million. It includes the demolition of the 20-acre Longview Place...
Planning consultant Randall Arendt has produced a 60-minute video, “Creating Traditional Neighborhoods with Conservation Design Principles: The Greener Aspects of New Urbanism,” which aims at bridging the gaps separating land-use planners,...