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.
DOT and HUD announce a joint effort to merge land use and planning to improve livability.
Photo 1 caption (appears on page 01):The redevelopment of the Columbia Heights Metro station area in Washington, DC, won a Charter Award for 2009. See story on page 5. courtesy of the congress for the new urbanism
Momentum is growing for what the US Environmental Protection Agency calls “green infrastructure.” Tom Low of the Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. reports that 130 people from across the country participated in March...
Hutto, Texas, became the second city in that state to adopt a citywide SmartCode, according to Community Development Director Matthew Lewis. The consultants on the project were Placemakers, Gateway Planning Group, and the architecture firm ERO....
An illustrated, 20-page urban planning book for children, Where Things Are, From Near to Far, has been written by Chris Steins, editor-in-chief of the Internet-based planning site Planetizen, and by Tim Halibur, Planetizen’s managing editor. “If we...
A federal study confirmed what many in the real estate industry have observed — the share of development in cities and first-ring suburbs has increased significantly since 1990 — and this trend continues in the wake of the real estate recession.
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), which has jurisdiction over most streets and roads in its state, is — like Virginia — requiring that new subdivision streets be connected to neighboring areas.
Since March 2008, DelDOT has...
Oklahoma City, which ranked dead last in Prevention magazine’s 2008 assessment of sizable American cities for walkability, commissioned Jeff Speck to tell the city how to improve conditions for pedestrians downtown. Speck says Oklahoma City’s...
Miami, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota, decided in March to adopt Complete Streets policies. Enactment of Complete Streets policies, which aim to make the transportation system work for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders as well as for...
Developer 620 Main Street Associates hopes to start construction in September on a cluster of cottages that architect Donald Powers sees as a model of how new urbanists can operate at a time when financing is hard to obtain. For an approximately 180...
Local road networks are included in “CLEAN TEA” legislation that was introduced in both the US Senate and House of Representatives in March. CLEAN TEA allocates revenues from carbon trading, which according to one estimate could generate $3 trillion...
A “Laneway Loft House” — a 624 sq. ft. dwelling designed to be placed along an alley — was the star of this year’s BC Home + Garden Show in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the urging of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, Smallworks...