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 Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF), a nonprofit development company that has built affordable housing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for nearly 30 years, recently joined with new urbanist professionals in a charrette that generated a master plan...
The Southern California Association of Governments has selected a team headed by John Fregonese and Peter Calthorpe to lead a “ Growth Visioning” project, one of the largest such exercises undertaken to date. The region has a population exceeding 15...
The Brookings Institution has released “The Link Between Growth Management and Housing Affordability: The Academic Evidence,” which concludes that housing prices are primarily determined by the strength of local demand for housing. The report...
As American-style sprawl begins to take root, two German academics argue that the New Urbanism is the missing link in the strategies to preserve and renew cities. In Berlin, an infill project showcases the principles in action.
The German...
A growing number of governors and state legislatures introduce bills to update planning statutes and promote smart growth principles.
By sheer volume alone, the state-level activity on planning reform is impressive. Between 1999 and 2001, lawmakers...
The Federal Highway Administration has launched a new traffic calming web site dedicated to all the known and/or electronically publicized transportation programs and studies pertaining to traffic calming. See: www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/tcalm/...
Austin Triangle, a smart growth showcase project in the Texas capital (see October/November 2000 issue), suffered a setback last December when residential developer Post Properties withdrew. Commercial developer Cencor Urban Realty has had five...
CATALYST is a new partnership formed by Matt Taecker, formerly a principal at Calthorpe Associates, and Tom Richman, a landscape architect with experience in ecological site planning and community visioning. The San Francisco-based firm has a staff...
As our tenth annual gathering of proponents of the New Urbanism approaches, the time is right to look back at the movement’s accomplishments. At the same time, big new challenges lie ahead —most notably that of helping existing suburbs become...
Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena, California, has completed a plan for Arboleda, a 210-acre community in King City, California, developed by Creekbridge Homes. The Transect-based design includes a site for a middle school to be built by the...
Grosvenor Village in North Bethesda, Maryland, is the first transit-oriented development to go into construction on land formerly owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Developer Potomac Investment Properties teamed...
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has stepped up its model smart growth grant program, called the Livable Centers Initiative, awarding more than $28 million in 2002 — compared to $1 million in 2001. The program is the largest of its kind, using...