• What good are planners if zoning disappears?

    In Arbitrary Lines, M. Nolan Gray offers a vision for a post-zoning world—including a productive shift in the planning profession.
    M. Nolan Gray has good timing with Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix it , one of the top selling urban planning and development books of the year. Zoning is being challenged like never before in the century since it caught fire as a public policy. Zoning reform is...Read more

  • Abandoned railways and urbanism

    Lately I’ve been thinking about major opportunities for urbanism—places where compact, mixed-use development makes the most sense in cities and towns nationwide. Transit-oriented development—building walkable, urban projects near transit stations—is just one widely recognized example. Likewise, a...Read more

  • Buttigieg: How transportation can connect communities

    The remarks of the US Secretary of Transportation, announcing the launch of the Reconnecting Communities program in Birmingham last week, are posted below.
    On June 30, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg journeyed to Birmingham, Alabama to announce the opening of applications for $1 billion in grants to regions, cities and non-profits to repair the scars inflicted on communities by urban highway and railroad construction. Since CNU has...Read more

  • Missing middle where the trains used to run

    A cottage court called the Railroad Cottages shows how abandoned rail lines converted to trails have potential for incremental development.
    The US has a wealth of abandoned rail lines—tens of thousands of miles running every which way across America. Many sections have been converted to walking and bicycling trails. Less often, planners use these corridors as an amenity that attracts compact housing or mixed-use development. The 22-...Read more