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 City of Miramar, Florida, approved final agreements necessary for Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and Kimco Developers to begin construction of the private development phase of the 54-acre Miramar Town Center. Planned by Torti Gallas...
By William Morgan Harry N. Abrams, 2004, 424 pp., hardcover $40.
Planning consultant John P. Bergan is leading a campaign to change the placement of a World War II Memorial soon to be built in Trenton’s Veterans Park. As currently planned, the memorial would be centered in the park but would be off center to the...
Santana Row, the shopping and housing development so large and costly that for a while it caused Federal Realty Investment Trust to swear off undertaking such projects, now appears to be doing well. The $455 million redevelopment of a shopping mall...
A mature and well-conceived new urban community can easily pass the “orange juice test.” That is, a resident can send a twelve-year-old son or daughter to the corner store unaccompanied to pick up some juice or other basic supplies. One could...
Millennium Partners expects to start building a mixed-use development in August at the Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Pleasant Hill, Contra Costa County, California. Plans have changed greatly during 14 years of contention over what should be...
Ventura, California, where new urbanist Rick Cole became city manager in early 2004, has now hired Ann Daigle as urban development and planning manager. Daigle is a founding principal of PlaceMakers, an urban design firm that focuses on New Urbanism...
Brian O’Looney of Torti Gallas & Partners took issue with an article in the March issue of New Urban News, stating that a proposed plan in Chico would, “for the first time in the US,” embed a professional baseball stadium into the urban fabric...
With its theme, “The Polycentric City, CNU XIII will explore issues that arise in Southern California and resonate in regions and localities everywhere. After all, regions all over the United States and beyond are facing the reality of connecting,...
Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, recently adopted comprehensive plan and zoning amendments that will allow a town center, a traditional neighborhood development (TND), and a hospital district influenced by smart growth principles to move forward....
TOD or transit-oriented development is a complex topic that can nevertheless be demystified.
In new urbanist parlance, the “transit” of TOD is often assumed to refer to rail. But rail is merely the most glamorous of various means, including buses,...
A sea of parking lots on the periphery of New Jersey state government offices in Trenton may be divided into streets and blocks as part of the state Department of Transportation’s plan for converting the Route 29 expressway into a graceful tree-...