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.
The LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) program won approval from all of the groups essential to taking it from pilot status to a full-fledged program. In a consensus body of approximately 3,000 members of the US Green Building Council, just...
We’ve been reporting for six or seven years that Arlington, Virginia, is something of a development wonder. Since 1979, when the Orange line opened with five underground Metro stations, the city has gained approximately 20 million square feet of new...
Long Branch, a New Jersey beach city that hit hard times in recent decades, is getting a big boost from a 16-acre mixed use development called Pier Village. The project is about two-thirds developed by Applied Development Company of Hoboken, and...
Three of the affordable housing developments in Asheville, North Carolina, that were reported on in the October-November New Urban News were produced by Mountain Housing Opportunities, not Mountain Home Opportunities. Financial support comes from...
International Code Council turns down a CNU proposal, and instead recommends giving fire officials veto power over traffic-calming measures.
Don’t miss the next testing period. Registration opens Dec. 1, 2009 and closes Jan. 14, 2010. Exam Access begins Mar. 22, 2010 and concludes: Apr. 26, 2010
Families across the US who live in affordable, subsidized, rental units within a half-mile of public transit are at risk of rising rents in the next five years, according to a report published by AARP.
East Garrison Partners, a firm that included new urbanist developers Ian Gillis and Keith McCoy, lost its East Garrison project in Monterey County, California, in September when the main lender, GMAC, refused to continue financing the mixed use...
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is seeking to use stimulus spending to support livable communities, says Beth Osborne, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy. DOT has $1.5 billion in multimodal discretionary funding from the...
While losing a development in Belmont, Tom Graham hopes for a turnaround with an infill development in Charlotte.
NEW TOWN UPDATE (posted on website) Yesterday Whittaker Builders and First Bank worked out an approved order with the court to operate under chapter 11 for the next 6 months while Whittaker works on a plan to exit chapter 11.
Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010, the annual report on the industry from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, is bearish on commercial real estate in general but bullish on mixed use, urban neighborhoods. A “fundamental shift” is...