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.
We at New Urban News recently saw an advertisement for 20-plus home plan books from Home Planners Inc. of Tucson, Arizona. Four of the books looked promising from a neotraditional development standpoint: Affordable Home Plans; 200 Narrow-Lot Home...
Abacoa, the 6,000-unit traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Jupiter, Florida, is now under full-scale development. The Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals played their first spring training season in a stadium in the town center, while...
Recognizing that smaller is sometimes better, Wal-Mart announced that it is opening three 40,000 square foot stores in the towns of Springdale, Bentonville and Sherwood, Arkansas. The average size of Wal-Mart stores are 92,000 square feet. The...
Detroit, an urban basketcase in recent decades, is going through a resurgence. Massive development projects in the city include two stadiums and three casinos (scheduled to open in 2001). Furthermore, General Motors is preparing to move its world...
Memphis will go ahead with implementation of its Greenlaw-Manassas Neighborhood Homeowner-ship Zone — although it was not chosen for a 1998 grant. The project is interesting from a new urbanist prospective, because it is located next to (and will...
More than 775 people attended the Congress for the New Urbanism VI in Denver April 30 through May 3, an increase of 150 percent from last year. This growth in attendance caused a few uncomfortably crowded sessions, but also is a sign of the amazing...
Looney Ricks Kiss, a Memphis-based architecture firm, now has an office in Princeton, New Jersey, the result of a merger with Community Planning & Research. Looney Ricks Kiss, well-known for its neotraditional home designs in Harbor Town,...
Software from Criterion of Portland, Oregon, evaluates projects and neighborhoods for factors such as pedestrian orientation, transportation efficiency, affordability and resource efficiency. The New Urbanism inspired plan above scores better than...
St. Joe Corp., the largest landowner in Florida and headed by former Disney executive Peter Rummell, is gearing up to build traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) on large tracts on the Florida Panhandle.
It seems that Rummell, who was in...
A 100-acre parcel that is the site of a planned neotraditional development called Spring Valley in Blacksburg, Virginia, is for sale at a price of $1.55 million, or $7,750 per lot. The project is reportedly approved and permitted, but Spring Valley...
Accessory apartments — i.e. units over garages, “granny flats,” carriage homes — represent a big question mark in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs). Often they are permitted to accompany every single detached home, and so could raise...
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced its second round of Homeownership Zone grants, awarding $18 million to five cities. After state, local and private funds are factored in, financing for these projects...