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.
New urbanist developer Vince Graham, a partner in acclaimed TNDs I’On and Newpoint, has run into political interference in Norfolk, Virginia. Graham’s firm, Civitas, was chosen as the developer of East Beach, a 100-acre project designed in 1994 by...
Federal Realty Investment Trust appears to be succeeding with its new urbanist projects in the Washington, DC, area. Bethesda Row, which includes 340,000 square feet of shops, offices, and restaurants in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, is 99.6 percent...
With appeals, litigation could continue for several years over Miles Point, an 89-acre TND denied by the town of St. Michaels, Maryland. At issue, according to developer George Valanos of the Midland Companies, is an inherent conflict between the...
A bill to create 1.5 million units of affordable housing during the next 10 years through a National Housing Trust Fund was introduced by US Sen. John Kerry. The bill was endorsed by the Sierra Club.
Category: public open space. Subcategory: plazas and squares.
In understanding the components of urbanism at any point along the Transect, it is useful to differentiate between the organization of movement and the organization of spatial...
Randal O’Toole is a man whose neighborhood was replanned by government officials as part of Portland Metro’s 2040 planning process in the mid-1990s — an event which launched his career as an anti-new urbanist. O’Toole is profoundly pessimistic about...
Sales have begun at three of the eight projects profiled in this report, and so far the consumer response has been positive. Washington Town Center opened sales at the beginning of 2001 and has sold 185 of the 560 homes planned for the first phase....
With the full support of local officials, a number of significant new urbanist projects are on the fast track.
Most new urbanist projects are held back by something — incompatible zoning codes, lack of financing, inappropriate street standards,...
Dealing with Neighborhood Change: A Primer on Gentrification and Policy Choices is a discussion paper prepared for the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and PolicyLink and written by Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard. The...
A 100-acre TND called Cotton Crossing in New Braunfels, Texas, recently began construction. As of May, six homes were built, three more were under construction, and all lots were sold in the 130-acre first phase. Multifamily dwellings and a 30,000...
Cost of construction, price of real estate, uncertain economy, and lack of design precedent contribute to decision.
Home Depot has pulled back from plans to build a mixed-use, four-story building in Portland, Oregon (see the April/May 2001 issue...
The first traditional neighborhood development (TND) centered on a historic crossroads will serve as the heart of a sprawling suburb.
Cherry Hill Village in Canton Township, Michigan, could be called a true “second generation” TND because it...