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.
For a conservative spin on the smart growth debate, turn to A Guide to Smart Growth: Shattering Myths, Providing Solutions, published by the Heritage Foundation. The book explores how the growing concerns about urban sprawl among voters can be...
Two recent appointments have placed advocates of the New Urbanism in prominent planning jobs. Harriet Tregoning, director of urban and economic development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been picked by Maryland Governor Parris...
A 700-acre new urbanist town center plan for the City of Wildwood, Missouri, was approved, and now has the backing of the majority of residents, according to city planner Joe Vujnich. Zoning has not been approved to support the plan. However, given...
In the first test of its regional outreach program, CNU lends technical expertise and builds consensus on recharging an urban neighborhood.
In late May, CNU's Regional Partnerships program kicked
off with a three-day workshop developing a...
Location Efficient Mortgages (LEM) are now an option for prospective home buyers in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. LEMs are primarily targeted at low- to middle-income households in dense, urban areas where public transit is...
A recent Washington Post article reported on a “new crusade” for pedestrian safety. “It is a small but growing uprising against the excesses of the nation’s car culture,” reports the Post, which cites grass roots programs in a half dozen cities...
Tim Hernandez, who led Pulte Homes’ failed effort to build the TND Salamanca in West Kendall, Florida, has formed his own company, New Urban Communities, based in Delray Beach. The firm will focus on developing smaller infill projects in downtowns...
Valencia Town Center Drive is the first main street in California to be built from the ground up in recent decades. The half-mile street is an extension of Valencia Town Center, a regional shopping mall in the master-planned community Valencia, 30...
Firm wants to finance apartments near town centers.
Kensington Marquette Partners of Chicago, a firm that manages assets from several state teachers’ pension funds, is seeking to invest in apartments in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs...
The nation’s broadest implementation of new urbanist zoning ordinances is underway in Wisconsin, where a 1999 smart growth law mandates that all cities, towns, and villages with a population of more than 12,500 adopt a model TND ordinance by January...
The state and Baltimore County are partners in the Owings Mills Town Center, a transit-oriented development.
Owings Mills, a rapidly growing “edge city” in Baltimore County, is about to get a main street and town center on what is currently 46...
Mockingbird Station, a 10-acre transit-oriented development in Dallas, is under construction and scheduled to open in 2000. Designed by RTKL, the development includes 216 loft apartments, an eight screen movie theater, and more than 90 shops and...