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.
Amicus Partners is the new home of Robert Shaw, former Dallas Cowboy and pioneering new urbanist developer. “Amicus means friends in Latin,” Shaw says, “and we are three friends who believe cities are going to be better.” Shaw’s partners are Jim...
The American Planning Association recently awarded its Outstanding Planning Award in the “Information Technology” category to an electronic Community Vision Survey conducted in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Designed and implemented by Looney...
The American Planning Association has published the report “Guide for Livable Communities Through ‘Smart Development.’” The report shows how communities are revamping development regulations and includes design guidelines and sample ordinances....
The new federal Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot program (TCSP) offers cities funds to explore the links between transportation and land use. TCSP is developed by the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of...
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced H.R. 1231, the Post Office Community Partnership Act, to address the problem of downtown post offices around the country being closed or relocated in outlying areas. At the moment the Postal Service is not...
The architectural firm Wolff-Lyon worked with city planners to create the new Business Main Street zoning district in Boulder, Colorado. The previous Commercial Business zoning mandated large setbacks and prohibited residential construction. One of...
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) is one step closer to making East Beach, a proposed traditional neighborhood development (TND) on the Chesapeake Bay, a reality. Ten developers expressed an interest in becoming the master...
Since early 1998, developers and planners in Western Australia have had an alternative model for future developments. The Western Australia Planning Commission issued Liveable Neighbourhoods: Community Design Code which advocates new urbanist...
Infill project fares better than suburbia in EPA report on travel behavior and air quality.
A proposed new urbanist brownfield development in downtown Atlanta has become a pilot project in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) program for...
If developers relied only on conventional market analysis, which focuses on what has sold in a given area in recent years, few if any new urbanist projects would be built. For that reason, new urbanist market analysts like Zimmerman Volk Associates...
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released the report “Challenging Sprawl: Organizational Responses to a National Problem.” The report gathers viewpoints on sprawl and alternative development patterns from representatives of national...
David Rusk’s new book, Inside Game, Outside Game: Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America, provides a critique of the efforts of the federal government and community development corporations to revitalize urban neighborhoods. A former mayor of...