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.
A state law — even one without teeth — can exert a strong influence on municipal planners. Wisconsin’s law mandating that every municipality above 12,500 population adopt a traditional neighborhood development (TND) code has caused a unique outcome...
Plans for New Daleville, a 90-acre Traditional Neighborhood Development with 125 houses and 12,500 square feet of retail space, have won approval from officials in Londonderry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The developer, Arcadia Land...
River Ranch in Lafayette, Louisiana, is becoming an influential model of new urban community-building. More than 100 developers have visited the project, under development by Robert Daigle and designed by architect Steve Oubre, according to the...
A sampling of recently published articles reveals the geographic breadth and growing popularity of transit-oriented development (TOD). “Transit villages” are planned for Caltrain stations in San Carlos, Redwood City, San Bruno, Daly City, and South...
Transit-oriented development (TOD) captured attention in the US Environmental Protection Agency ‘s first annual National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement, which were presented November 18. Two of the four recipients — Arlington County, Virginia,...
Many players in New Urbanism headed for New Mexico recently, yet their agendas are mostly national, not local.
There’s a distinct Southwestern flavor to this issue. Philip Langdon reports on the remarkable revitalization of downtown Albuquerque,...
McGreevey wants to build more transit villages and fewer roads.
With Parris Glendening’s tenure as governor of Maryland about to end, it appears that leadership in the campaign for “smart growth” is now being claimed by New Jersey Gov. James E....
A two-year search for financing recently paid off for Terry Stamper, developer of the Peninsula Neighborhood in Iowa City.Stamper and his partners received a $2.25 million loan from a Kansas bank to move forward with the first phase. The lender,...
The Town of Brookhaven on New York’s Long Island imposed a six-month moratorium on development in an unattractive strip commercial stretch of the Montauk Highway. The moratorium is allowing time for Colorado-based consultant Peter Swift to draw up a...
At its meeting during the last weekend of September, CNU’s Board of Directors made important decisions. It moved forward with chapters (see page 21). In addition:
• Stephanie Bothwell was unanimously appointed to the board. A landscape architect,...
Urban design strategies for a neighborhood in San Jose, California, soon to be served by light-rail transit were the focus of a charrette conducted Nov. 13-18 by the University of Miami’s Knight Program in Community Building. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk...
Architect Witold Rybczynski, editor of the Wharton Real Estate Review, has written one of the best financial analyses to date of new urban communities. “The Art of the New Urbanist Deal,” in the fall issue of the Review, examines four new urban...