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 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...
Belmont, North Carolina, was one of the first municipalities nationwide to have a traditional neighborhood development (TND) ordinance. Now it appears that the municipality may get its first TND. The $40 million project will convert a historic...
Zoning ordinances in Fort Collins, CO; Huntersville, NC; and Austin, TX; are case studies of approaches to changing municipal land use regulations.
In response to encroaching sprawl, a small number of municipal planners
and elected officials...
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...
HomeStyles.com, the company behind the TND Series and the website TNDhomes.com, has issued a call for house plans to architects and designers. HomeStyles.com seeks plans for simple, elegant starter homes with modest floor plans and live/work...
Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, has two major malls, 35 million square feet of office space (more than many large cities), and represents the apex of sprawl in the Washington, D.C., area. It would be hard to find a more pedestrian unfriendly place, but...