• The first suburban retrofit gets a neighborhood

    After two decades, Mashpee Commons is moving forward with 300-plus residential units, more shops, and civic spaces with support from the regional planning authority.
    Transformation of the former New Seabury Shopping Center in Mashpee, Massachusetts, into a town center began 30 years ago. The early-1960s strip mall at the intersection of two state highways on Cape Cod was fading and needed refurbishment. Mashpee, a suburban municipality located between two older...Read more

  • CNU group seeks to Build a Better Burb

    The Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council met in Miami to explore opportunities for promoting land-use diversity and transportation choice in the suburbs—with particular focus on the needs of smaller suburbs with less robust markets. A follow–up meeting will be held at CNU 24 in Detroit on...Read more

  • Coding for community success

    A Georgia suburb siezes the opportunity of a closed GM factory to plan for a town center.
    Throughout the US, discontent is growing over the state of our cities and towns. Frustrated by traffic congestion, a lack of transportation and housing choices, and places that increasingly resemble nowhere in particular, many elected officials, business leaders, and residents are coming together...Read more

  • Sprawl is not the problem

    Note: This is a guest article from Strong Towns , which will attend and cover CNU 24 in Detroit. Recently, I made a few people upset with me by asking that I not be called a smart growth advocate . Actually, I received a lot of email and messages on that one and the ratio of positive to negative...Read more