• How to get by-right zoning right

    The Form-Based Coding process ensures that the discussion about where and what type of housing to allow happens at a community level, rather than on a project-by-project basis.
    By-right zoning is getting a lot of buzz these days as a needed tool to help solve the affordable housing crisis many communities are facing. For those unfamiliar, a zoning code is considered “by-right” if the approvals process is streamlined so that projects that comply with the zoning standards...Read more

  • How to create a bottom-up coalition for change

    Building a Better Burb can sometimes fall victim to raw politics unless public officials see grassroots support.
    Note: This document is one of a series of tools created for Build a Better Burb, the Hub for Great Suburban Design. The series emerged from the Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council in Miami, Florida, in March, 2016—an event aimed at expanding transportation choice, sense of place, and...Read more

  • Traditional cities are having a big decade

    Strong demand for historic downtowns and neighborhoods brings a surge of population at a level not seen in 70 years.
    Traditional American cities like Seattle, New Orleans, New York City, and Philadelphia are growing this decade at a rate that they haven’t seen since the 1940s, according to a Public Square analysis. The 25 largest traditional cities gained 3.8 percent in population in the first half of this decade...Read more

  • Saint Jane

    Note: 2016 is the centennial of the birth of Jane Jacobs. Jane Jacobs’s pivotal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , is the most influential American text about the inner workings of cities—of how they fail but also of how cities succeed. Since its publication in 1961, the book has...Read more