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.
The Board also authorized Board members Jim Murley and Stephanie Bothwell to refine the Draft Chapter Handbook with the goal of reducing financial and institutional barriers to chapter formation. Input from members involved in chapter organizing is...
The Baltimore Sun recently urged Baltimore County in Maryland to adopt “form-based zoning.” County Executive James T. Smith Jr. reportedly supports a switch to new urban codes to revitalize decaying commercial strips. “The County Council should...
Veridian Homes, Wisconsin’s largest builder, has broken ground on Cannery Square, the redevelopment of a historic cannery in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The project will include 23 buildings with 20,000 to 40,000 square feet of commercial space; 83...
The ability to evolve is among the most important and underestimated differences between conventional zoning and Transect-based development. The social and economic forces at work on places are always changing. It is better to anticipate change and...
Stefanos Polyzoides of Moule & Polyzoides Architects led a charrette in late September that recommended developing a multi-way boulevard on Broadway east of downtown Albuquerque and preparing for eventual light-rail service on Central Avenue,...
Adivided state legislature and opposition from builders have dissuaded New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey from pushing much of the anti-sprawl agenda he proposed last January. The New York Times reported Oct. 21 that McGreevey, a first-term...
Federal Realty Investment Trust is embarking on a major new urban development — a year and a half after announcing that it was moving away from “main street” communities in favor of conventional projects. The new urban project, called Rockville Town...
Like to know how to dispute the calculations of transportation engineers? A helpful guide is an article by Donald Shoup, “Roughly Right or Precisely Wrong,” in the Spring 2002 issue of Access magazine, published by the University of California...
The Prince’s Foundation in London recently appointed two American new urbanist practitioners, Michael Mehaffy and Melissa Saunders. Mehaffy is director of education, and Saunders is director of consulting. The organization founded by Prince Charles...
Approving several proposals of student member Zach Borders, the CNU Board of Directors made new plans at its fall meeting to expand CNU’s Charter Awards to include a category for student work, and to program a student session at CNU XII. Awards...
ULI honored a number of new urban projects in its 2003 Awards for Excellence competition. Seaside, Florida, which began construction 20 years ago, was honored. Seaside was developed by Robert Davis and planned by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co.
The...
A new development incorporating aspects of New Urbanism and sustainability is getting underway 32 miles south of Atlanta. Serenbe, a 900-acre project in Palmetto, Georgia, is designed in the form of two mixed-use hamlets. Seventy percent of the land...