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.
As part of its ongoing Emergency Response and Street Design Initiative, The Congress for the New Urbanism is proposing changes to the International Fire Code that will empower local fire code officials to be more flexible on street designs. These...
The University of Utah has established a new professional education program, the Mountain West Planning and Design Academy. Reid Ewing, a well-known researcher in the smart growth field, will guide the program with Chris Arthur and Robert Young. The...
A four-year effort to place the city of Miami under a new urbanist zoning system failed in August when the City Commission deadlocked on the proposal, known as “Miami 21.” However, the code, which was formulated under the guidance of Duany Plater-...
This month, Vancouver, British Columbia, will begin allowing developers to build condominium units that include “secondary suites” — living quarters that can operate independent of the main portion of each condo. A condo owner could use the...
Cornell, once a star new urban undertaking, falls short on retail within walking distance. ��The failings of Cornell, a signature new urban project north of Toronto, were vividly laid out by a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on March 13. In...
Southport Green, an extraordinarily expensive new urban pocket neighborhood in Fairfield, Connecticut, is again trying to attract homebuyers — two years after the project was foreclosed on by TD Bank. This time, asking prices for the high-quality,...
With a unanimous vote of city council, San Antonio approved a form-based code for optional use citywide. The Form-Based Zoning District (FBZD), based on the SmartCode, began with a Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company charrette and was customized by...
New Urban Free Agents, sponsored by the New Urban Guild, is a network of free-agent planners, architects, and designers who have worked within the New Urbanism. “Almost all architecture and design firms have been laying off employees since the...
Just over a year after the Congress for the New Urbanism launched the Emergency Response & Street Design Initiative, the project is poised to change minds and national fire codes.
Instead of calling for more discussion, LEED organizers want to put the Neighborhood Development program up for a yes-or-no vote.After five years of preparation and testing, members of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Congress for the...
David Cohen says he hasn’t given up on his dream of building defect-free houses in a factory and then wheeling them onto foundations in a new urban community. But he has recalibrated the number of houses that his company, Cohen Brothers Homes, must...
Reform of the state departments of transportation has been a key goal of new urbanists for years — and it appears to be actually underway in two major states, Pennsylvania and Texas.