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.
Residential construction has begun in Mission Bay, a brownfield development that will cover more than 300 acres adjacent to San Francisco’s downtown. The Mission Housing Development Corporation is building the first complex of 100 affordable...
The Orange County, California, Council of Governments is presenting an ideas/design competition to explore ways for the county to absorb an additional 1 million residents, 300,000 housing units, and 1 million employees during the next 20 years and...
Two major ballot initiatives on growth management were defeated by voters in the November elections. In Arizona, the Sierra Club launched Proposition 202, which would have mandated that all cities, towns, and counties adopt voter-approved growth...
Avirtual city on the nternet proposed by Andres Duany to promote the New Urbanism is on hold, according to the Miami architect. The urban Transect, upon which the internet site will be based, is still not fully developed as a concept, Duany says....
Mixed-use research and academic communities in the form of traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) are among the latest design challenges facing new urbanists.
Universities historically have employed great urban design on campus, and some...
A new urbanist neighborhood throws away its architectural codes to promote contemporary designs.
Prospect was the first new urbanist (NU) project to get off the ground in Colorado, and now it is breaking new ground nationally with its use of...
Patience has paid off in San Jose, California, where two development projects are completed in the Jackson-Taylor neighborhood and a third is under construction. The city adopted Calthorpe Associates’ specific plan and design guidelines for the area...
In the mountainous West, where land is plentiful and people scarce, the New Urbanism has found little application to date. In Idaho, however, the Village at Hidden Springs in Ada County outside Boise is the first attempt at building a walkable town...
David Weekly Homes is the latest builder to join neotraditional Avalon Park in east Orlando, Florida. Weekly purchased 90 home sites in the fast-selling project, and will offer homes ranging from $200,000 to $350,000. Weekly is already building in...
Miramar, Florida, is planning a $130 million, 54-acre town center designed by Torti Gallas & Partners/CHK. The project includes a new city hall, cultural arts center, and library, in addition to 225 apartments, 290,000 square feet of office...
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is running a controversial $1 million ad campaign using sprawl as a reason to limit immigration. The group claims that sprawl is caused, for the most part, by mass immigration. Anti-sprawl groups...
The Town Council of Huntington Township, New York, has selected Ron Stein as the municipality’s first smart growth coordinator. Stein founded the nonprofit group Vision Huntington, which spearheaded an effective campaign to get public officials and...