• Vermont Is zoning For great neighborhoods

    Small changes to zoning bylaws are making a big difference in the Green Mountain State.
    Brattleboro, Vermont is known for its thriving riverside arts scene , crunchy culture, and eclectic festivals including the Strolling of the Heifers . While Brattleboro’s newest project may not be as memorable as young farmers herding cows down Main Street, its impact certainly will be. The project...Read more

  • Why we code

    We prepare codes because it is the most abstract, rigorous, and intellectually refined practice available to a designer. It is also verifiable: by being projected into the world, codes engage a reality that can lead to resounding failure (or success).
    I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Within the last half-century, some 30 million buildings have degraded cities and reduced landscapes. Must we tolerate this...Read more

  • How physical activity, land use, transportation, and zoning intersect

    Zoning rarely gets discussed as directly related to health, but communities that have reformed their codes see health benefits, from reduced rates of cancer to greater physical activity—which in turn lowers disease and improves mental health.
    In an On the Park Bench webinar, Jamie Chriqui, PhD, reports on the intersection of physical activity, land use and transportation, and zoning. This matters because half of the US population is physically inactive (more prevalent in the Sunbelt), and inactive people are far more likely to have...Read more

  • Zoning that supports physical activity rising in the US

    A longitudinal study found a 53 percent increase in new urbanist type zoning in the US during the previous decade, and support for infrastructure that boosts physical activity, and ultimately, health.
    New-urbanist-type zoning codes rose 53 percent across the US over the previous decade, according to research by the CDC-funded Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN). Across the board, this type of zoning promotes more sidewalks, mixed-use, bicycle-pedestrian trails,...Read more