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.
At the end of 1996, the fast-growing City of Genoa, Illinois, adopted a comprehensive plan calling for pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use hamlets and neighborhoods in most undeveloped areas. The first major development proposed under the new plan...
The vigor of the New Urbanism is reflected in the myriad subdisciplines within the movement. Three members of the Congress for the New Urbanism — Michael Garber, John Anderson and Thomas DiGiovanni — have created a well researched and superbly...
The Congress for the New Urbanism and the Local Government Commission jointly received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June for a two-year demonstration project in five older suburban cities near Los Angeles....
The U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) will not pay 100 percent of future Hope 6 projects, according to Elinor Bacon, deputy assistant secretary. HUD has been concerned about the cost of Hope 6, which is producing some of the most...
The NationsBank Gateway Village project is breaking ground in the uptown section of Charlotte, North Carolina. The 16-acre, seven-phase project eventually will include 1.2 million square feet of offices, 450 rental and townhouse units, and street-...
The lunch meeting, attended by more than 500 people, brought
both a clash of philosophies and a realization that the two groups share common interests. The ULI’s spring conference was held in Denver the same week as CNU VI, which created the...
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series dealing with cutting costs in building a traditional neighborhood development (TND). The first, which appeared in the May/June 1998 issue, dealt with home construction issues. This article...
Recent articles in two major dailies, the Seattle Times (April 4 and 11) and the Chicago Tribune (June 20), show that the mainstream press is becoming more sophisticated about the New Urbanism. Both articles were prompted by new urbanist...
The New Urbanism is having a significant impact on production home building in North America, but much of that impact is superficial — phony marketing of “community” and attempts to create a traditional “look” with architectural clutter, for example...
“An argument can be made that the new towns contribute to the further dispersion and deterioration of the core.” —Architect Harvey Gantt (May, 1998)
“Instead of focusing all of our energies on building new neotraditional towns, we should...
Jefferson County, Kentucky, approved a Planned Village Development (PVD) District ordinance in late April, 1998, which applies to unincorporated areas surrounding the City of Louisville. The PVD is similar to many traditional neighborhood...
Construction began in May on 1,500-acre Austin Ranch, the latest in a series of projects in or near Dallas, Texas, using new urbanist principles. The master plan for the 5,000 home project was designed by RTKL and the first neighborhood, called...