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.
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, which had 67,000 residents before Hurricane Katrina damaged most of the homes in its jurisdiction, may pull back from the most flood-prone areas, such as those along the 40-Arpent Canal, where a surge of water caused...
New Town at St. Charles, Missouri, is the top-selling development out of 17,280 developments in a region that includes all or part of 16 states, according to a survey by MarketGraphics, a market research firm based in Brentwood, Tennessee.
New Town...
By John M. DeGroveLincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2005, 360 pp., paperback $30.
Affluent Americans are increasingly buying or renting second homes in urban centers. “The 2000 Census indicated that the number of apartments in Manhattan used as second homes had increased 141 percent to 21,640 over the previous decade, and the...
The City of Toronto won a significant legal battle in March when the Ontario Municipal Board upheld the city’s right to limit drive-through facilities. The Board ruled that the city was justified in refusing to let Canadian Tire Corporation include...
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has become the first governor to veto legislation curtailing eminent domain. Since the US Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London last June, more than 40 states have passed or considered legislation to cut...
Organizers of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) program hope to start the initiative by operating a small-scale test of it this fall. For about two years, the Congress for the New Urbanism has been...
Austin, Texas, this winter established its first “parking benefit district,” which will regulate parking demand in the West Campus area, where the city intends to increase residential density.
The world’s most populous nation is planning to accommodate a massive influx of urban dwellers in multi-modal, high-density developments.
Chael, Cooper & Associates of Coral Gables, Florida, which operates in association with Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning, won a Palladio Award for the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Building and McKean Gateway at Rollins College, which...
The Urban Land Institute, which helped establish regional smart growth alliances in the Philadelphia and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas (see Sept. 2005 New Urban News), is expanding its initiative to six other regions. Since starting the...
Mashpee Commons on Cape Cod is in the permitting phase for 382 new residences — a mix of detached houses, townhouses, apartments, and live-works. Developers Buff Chace and Douglas Storrs are obtaining permits under a Massachusetts law known