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.
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...
A land use change was approved to put a 45,000 square foot supermarket in the town center of Middleton Hills, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Middleton, Wisconsin (see October/November 2003 New Urban News). Now the developer must get...
New Urbanism has been slow to catch on in New England, partly because many suburban and rural municipalities don’t want much residential development and especially don’t want the expense of educating more children. That’s certainly the case in...
Maryland’s smart growth program, one of the most widely noted efforts by a state government to curb sprawl, has largely survived the shift to a new Republican administration. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. recently introduced a “Priority Places Strategy...
Better internal connectivity, smaller blocks, and pedestrian accessibility to shops and other commercial uses are reasons why buyers are willing to pay more to live in a new urban community, according to a recent study on New Urbanism and Housing...