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.
Katrina Cottages that were recently placed in Mississippi locations as part of the state’s $280 million alternative housing pilot program are able to withstand winds of 150 mph, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed in late September...
Sandy Sorlien, coauthor of the SmartCode v9.0 and Manual, is no longer working with the SmartCode Pro Sessions. Instead, to supplement both SCP and PlaceMakers’ SmartCode Workshops, Sandy has launched SmartCode Local, an intensive master class in...
The New Urban Design Group in Calgary, Alberta, is working on a resort village in the Canadian Rockies that will take its inspiration from some of the great hill towns in Europe. The project, Silvertip Village, is one of several new urbanist...
Glenwood Park, the award-winning traditional neighborhood development in Atlanta, now has a park for dogs and their owners. Green Street Properties, which is developing the 28-acre community, donated land for a dog park after discovering that “...
By Christopher B. LeinbergerIsland Press, 2007, 224 pp., $25.95 hardcover.
Tesco, a big British supermarket chain, is planning to open at least 21 Fresh & Easy stores — most of them about 10,000 sq. ft. — in the Phoenix area, and to establish additional stores in Las Vegas, San Diego, and Los Angeles, according to The...
Sarasota County, Florida, commissioners unanimously endorsed a zoning ordinance amendment in August, establishing form-based code as an option for mixed-use, commercial development, according to the Sun newspapers. “If someone is considering whether...
As of early this summer, Buffalo looked like a promising site for CNU’s Highways to Boulevards initiative. Elected leaders such as Congressman Brian Higgins, a speaker at CNU’s 2006 Congress in Providence, were calling for the removal of the...
The University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Development Program chaired by Chris Leinberger has become so popular that it’s seeking a codirector who will supplement Leinberger’s involvement. The program, spearheaded by the university’s Taubman...
Rendering caption (on page 1): Walthamstow city center in London, England, is one of many new urban plans that take inspiration from the organic, cranky street patterns of old Europe. See articles on pages 6.
In 1999, Wisconsin passed the first and only state law in the US requiring municipalities to have traditional neighborhood development codes. Eight years later — and five years after the initial deadline for adopting these ordinances — many...
Dover, Kohl & Partners led a week-long charrette in mid-September aimed at bringing order, pedestrian comfort, and a degree of architectural grace to the jumbled section of Miami containing the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine,...