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.
Attorney Doris Goldstein has developed a set of model legal documents for TND development. Goldstein says she offers the service as a cost-effective alternative for small developers who want to avoid the high price of drafting new documents and the...
For years, CNU members in various parts of the country have urged us to work more on the local level. We have generally demurred out of concern that we would end up spending all our time on local issues and neglect the big picture. Our new Regional...
Development financing for a new neighborhood near Duke University in Durham, North Carolina has been secured by TND Capital Management LLC, a part of the TND Fund, an equity investment group for new urbanist developments. Trinity Heights is a 6.8-...
Playa Vista, the 1,087-acre mixed-use, high-density project in Los Angeles finally began construction of buildings in the winter of 2000 after more than a decade of planning, design, infrastructure development, legal battles, and a change of...
The first ever proposal for a new urbanist development in the Syracuse, New York, region is now in permit review in the Town of Camillus. The Pioneer Companies of Syracuse proposes a first phase of 84 small-lot single family homes on 30 of the site...
Twenty-five years of regional planning has left Portland with a renewed downtown, a spirited and informed public debate, and lots of sprawl that still needs fixing.
Portland has a long-standing reputation as a model for regional-scale progressive...
A new urbanist community is far more complex, and therefore more risky to finance, than a conventional subdivision. But with this complexity comes the possibility of creating a much greater long-term value. That’s the conclusion drawn by Tom Low, an...
The New Jersey state plan calls for compact, mixed-use development, but the bureaucracy supports sprawl. Washington Town Center has forced officials to confront this inconsistency.
When Washington Township created its town center plan, it applied...
Even as recent estimates indicate a rise in the amount of money going to TNDs, the conservative financial market still hedges its bets on the New Urbanism.
More than 125 traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) are under construction, as are...
Under a new ordinance, TND is a development option anywhere within the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. City planners developed the ordinance during the building of Mechanicsville Commons, a Hope VI redevelopment of a public housing project. It applies...
The National Town Builders Association (NTBA) has announced the first item in its planned Town Building Marketplace. Full members of NTBA can now enjoy rebates on the purchase of Windsor Windows, the first line of windows to be made entirely of...
In January, CNU and the Seaside Institute hosted a groundbreaking academic conference in Seaside, Florida. It marked the first time that a multi-disciplinary group of social researchers and practitioners gathered expressly to discuss the issues...