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.
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...
In Canada’s foremost laboratory for the New Urbanism, planners knit together many projects to create a ring of interconnected neighborhoods around the existing town.
Markham was among the first municipalities in North America to adopt a new...
Homebuilders: Americans want it that way.
In its new report, Sprawl Costs Us All: How Your Taxes Fuel Suburban Sprawl, the Sierra Club suggests that it is not just the environment that is hurt by current development practices; American taxpayers...
In Portland, Oregon, construction is well underway on a new streetcar line connecting neighborhoods to downtown. The approximately five miles of tracks in the first phase are laid on streets 36 feet wide curb to curb, with parking on both sides....
Changing Direction, a study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STTP), presents both good and bad news about the direction of federal transportation spending in the 1990s. On the positive side, the study says funding increased for repair...
The downtown of Celebration a neotraditional town in Osceola County, Florida, is still going through some growing pains. Although many of the businesses — particularly restaurants — have been successful, about a half dozen have failed, the...
CNU will collaborate with local and federal agencies on the redevelopment of Washington, D.C.’s, underused southern shore.
Between the Southeast Freeway and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., five short blocks from the U.S. Capitol, is a...
The City of Clearwater near Tampa, Florida, has selected a team of new urbanist developers to head the redevelopment of the city’s downtown. George de Guardiola and Bruce A. Rendina, developers of Abacoa Town Center in Jupiter, Florida, have joined...
Editor’s note: Vince Graham and Robert Turner were interviewed separately. The following are quotes from those interviews on the subject of building human-scale communities.
On the New Urbanism/TND
Vince Graham: “We believe in TND, and we’re...
With their variety of housing types, TNDs potentiallyare able to respond to changes in demographics and market demand better than conventional subdivisions. With that advantage in mind, savvy developers like to keep their plans as flexible as...