Archives
Welcome to the archives of Better Cities & Towns, a publication founded by Robert Steuteville as New Urban News in 1996. This archive holds two decades of the best news and analysis on compact, mixed-use growth and development, from 1996 to 2015.
The Financial Times reported July 18 on a sure sign that sprawl is on the defensive, at least for now: Some developers are selling outlying land back to agricultural interests, having concluded that the market for constructing houses on it has...
New York designer Marianne Cusato is author of a 52-page publication, The Value of Design, which examines urbanism, traditional architecture, and building materials. Written for general readers, the full-color publication was produced by James...
The Warminster, Pennsylvania, Planning Commission unanimously approved a proposed 16-acre transit-oriented development, according to The Intelligencer newspaper. The plan, by developers J.G. Petrucci Co. of Asbury, New Jersey, will go to the board...
Metropolitan Baltimore is about to try the “Cool Spots” method of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Criterion Planners of Portland, Oregon, will conduct three “digital charrettes” in September and October with the planning directors of the City of...
Milt Rhodes in Raleigh, North Carolina, who in 2006 established New Urban Water Works to develop innovative stormwater management plans for communities, recently started another business. His Carolina Cottage Company designs and builds very small...
Construction began this spring on phase 1 of Westgate Pasadena, a 2005 Charter Award winner designed by Thomas P. Cox Architects. The 820-unit infill development includes 110 affordable units and 22,000 square feet of retail on 12 acres in the ...
The July/August issue of Cottage Living features what are described as the nation’s “Top 10 Neighborhoods.” Nine of the ten incorporate new urbanist ideas. Pictured on the magazine’s cover is Serenbe, a 1,000-acre development in Palmetto, Georgia,...
Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia has written a paper that calls for changes in the LEED rating system. LEED programs typically “reduce building energy consumption 20 to 60 percent,” says Litman, but they...
Widewaters Group, based in DeWitt, New York, and Robert M. Leidig & Associates, in Monterey County, California, have been authorized by the City of Salinas, California, to negotiate the master planning and redevelopment of an eight-block area in...
im Van der Ryn, Paul Hawken, Jerry Brown, Peter Calthorpe, and Stewart Brand to appear at September event
New urbanist thinking holds that tight-knit development can promote neighborliness and can generate densities that make amenities, such as nearby shops and transit service, economically feasible. But at what point does a lot become too small for...
Whittaker Homes, the successful developer of New Town at St. Charles, Missouri, is stalled in efforts to build a similar, even larger development in the city of Liberty, near Kansas City, according to a report in The Kansas City Star. The holdup for...