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.
Developer Casey Roloff is getting ready to begin construction of homes in Seabrook, the first full-scale new urban beach development on the West Coast. The project in Pacific Beach, Washington, occupies 88 acres and is planned for 400 housing units...
Producer Kyle Justice has put together a 22-minute promotional video/DVD for the new town of Seabrook in Pacific Beach, Washington. The high-quality video includes footage of TNDs and interviews with developer Casey Roloff, designer Laurence Qamar,...
CNU members should watch their mailboxes for issue eight of Zoning Practice of the American Planning Association, provided as a CNU membership benefit. Produced in cooperation with CNU, this issue focuses on creating and modifying zoning codes to...
By Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson Island Press, 2004, 338 pp., hardcover $60, paperback $30
Decades ago, alleys in eastern seaboard cities were inhabited mostly by the poor. Today, by contrast, they are becoming increasingly alluring to middle- and upper-income people, some of whom are willing to pay large sums for an alley home possessing...
Now that his Seaside, Florida, development is well established, Robert Davis is focusing much of his attention on two distinct parts of the world environment: the “urban room” and the “agricultural edge.” In 2002, Davis, Raymond Gindroz of Urban...
Public agencies and community groups are becoming increasingly eager to use charrettes to plan new developments or to guide the redevelopment of areas in need of a makeover. And the National Charrette Institute (NCI) in Portland, Oregon, is...
“Urban initiative funds,” or UIFs, are on the rise. First the New Mexico Urban Initiatives Fund began operations and placed its initial investment — $1.5 million — in the $9.8 million Gold Avenue Lofts project in downtown Albuquerque. Now a second...
ACalifornia law explicitly stating that form-based codes are legal was signed in July by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after the measure was approved unanimously by the legislature. Although the law does not require municipalities to adopt new urban...
About 80 people attended the Next Generation meeting held at the Palmer House in Chicago prior to the Congress for the New Urbanism in June, according to Brian Wright, an organizer of the event. The Next Generation group includes about 200 new...
A new village for 550 homes, a school, shops, community center, and health center is proposed for Flintshire, in North Wales, United Kingdom. The Prince’s Foundation, Britain’s leading New Urbanism proponents, had an early role in steering the...
Juneau Avenue Partners announced in July that House of Blues Entertainment will occupy a 32,000-square-foot club and Jenco Cinemas will operate a 16-screen Cinemax theater in Milwaukee’s PabstCity project. The 1.2-million-square-foot PabstCity...