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 $250 million, five-block project in a former industrial district of Portland, Oregon, combines new urban planning, high-density, mixed-use, contextual design, and adaptive reuse. In short, the Brewery Blocks, billed as Portland’s largest private...
The Canada Lands Company (CLC), the primary developer of government land in Canada, is moving toward making new urban principles the standard in its projects. CLC is a Crown corporation, i.e., the government is the only shareholder, which allows the...
Sprawl Watch’s recent report, “Creating a Healthy Environment: the Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health,” cites primary connections between sprawl and health as found by doctors and researchers from the CDC. Contact: allison@sprawlwatch....
“Smart Growth: The Alternative to Suburban Sprawl,” a 23-minute video by William B. Morton, begins by describing the loss of quality of life and environmental degradation caused by suburban sprawl, contrasts current development patterns with those...
The first major round of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hope VI grants under the Bush Administration, totaling nearly $500 million, focuses on principles of the New Urbanism.
Begun in 1993, the Hope VI program has...
The number of allies grow, but the principles remain the same.
The support for the New Urbanism and smart growth gets wider all the time.
To the list that includes many environmental groups, governors, mayors, planners, transit advocates, and...
The University of North Carolina’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies launched the Smart Growth and the New Economy Program to examine links between the two topics. Communities that pursue smart growth may have a competitive edge in attracting...
One of the greatest challenges for a developer or public official who wants
to promote New Urbanism is finding the best way to concisely explain the basic principles. New presentations from the CNU help get across the big picture. CNU’s “Tour of...
The Stapleton development in Denver has a Workforce Housing Program designed to ensure that at least 10 percent of the for-sale homes will be relatively affordable. A total of 800 condominiums, townhomes, and duplexes will be built under this...
Claymont — an unincorporated village on the Philadelphia Pike in New Castle County, Delaware — has suffered physically from sprawl since the 1960s in the form of too many fast-food franchises, gas stations, and other strip commercial uses with...
Ayrsley, the largest and densest new urban project in Charlotte, North Carolina, to date, is breaking ground on a 140-acre site bounded by Interstate 485 and South Tryon Street. The northern half of the site is planned around a boulevard terminating...
Charlotte City Council voted unanimously to disallow cul-de-sacs, except when geographic barriers prevent street connections. Existing cul-de-sacs won’t be affected. The vote is a significant step toward connectivity of neighborhood design, and was...