• Ten code reform priorities for the housing crisis

    A widespread shortage of affordable housing is causing local jurisdictions to amend their land-use regulations. Here’s a list of 10 highly effective reforms, with notes on why they are needed.
    Many municipalities are currently looking at revising their zoning code to allow for a wider range of housing choice. I have worked with enough local zoning codes to get a strong sense of the highest priority reforms that can make a difference for housing choice and affordability. One, take the...Read more

  • Pave paradise? No, ditch the parking lot

    Now that parking mandates are falling at an accelerating clip, here's a look at the fountainhead of parking reform.
    Editor's Note: A review of The High Cost of Free Parking was published in New Urban News in April, 2005, when the book was released. Subtitled “Planning expert Donald Shoup offers a novel solution to places damaged by too much parking,” the review by Philip Langdon captures why the book has been so...Read more

  • Four types of corridors

    Many kinds of urban corridors have great potential to transform cities, if the design is good.
    Corridors are underrecognized, but hugely influential, elements of the urban fabric. Corridors are the theme of CNU 31 in Charlotte , beginning May 31. Since the middle of the 20th Century, city has been built around thoroughfare corridors radiating out from the city center—and now is being...Read more

  • Reviving the downtown of a hard luck city

    Florida’s first predominantly African-American suburb has been out of the economic mainstream for six decades. A downtown plan that focuses on New Urbanism, affordable housing, and minority business development maps out a better future.
    Founded in the 1920s by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtis, Opa-locka, Florida, had an imaginative beginning, with architecture based on the Arabian Nights. The city six miles north of Miami reportedly has the largest collection of Moorish building design in the Western Hemisphere. The City Hall, with...Read more