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.
Dane County developed its model ordinance by researching codes approved in cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, says county planner Steve Steinhoff. Elements of these codes were combined into an ordinance and refined by a multimunicipal...
The authors of two bibliographies of scholarly research on new urbanist topics share a few highlights from the lists.
“Factors influencing light-rail station boardings in the United States,” by Michael Kuby et al. in Transportation Research Part...
Mashpee Commons in Mashpee, Massachusetts, is getting close to completing three live-work units – the first of 30 to 35 that will be built, according to Doug Storrs of Cornish Associates, the developer. The 2,100 sq. ft., two-story shopfront houses...
Eight hundred acres of the former Fort Ord, an Army base about 100 miles south of San Francisco, are about to be developed into a mixed-use community featuring live-work lofts for artists and a large complement of permanently affordable housing. Two...
“A review of key state and local planning records” reveals “no significant shifts in Maryland’s development patterns since the passage of [former Governor Parris] Glendening’s smart growth package,” the Washington Post reported Aug. 10 in a detailed...
A new firm, DPZ-Pacific, has been formed by former Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) director Demetri Baches, and three former DPZ staffers: Mallory Baches, Ludwig Fontalvo-Abello, and Kamal Zaharin. The firm, a “DPZ affiliate,” Baches says,...
Excelsior and Grand, a $150 million development in St. Louis Park, MN, is getting high marks from the local media. A recent article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune begins thus: “Looking for a way to turn your aging suburban strip into a hip, people-...
The “American Dream” has always included not only owning your own home but being your own boss. It is odd therefore that not nearly as much thought, effort, and money have gone into how to provide affordable workspace as into achieving affordable...
How to code live/work units, a new building type in the modern mixed-use era, is often tricky. Nowhere have fire and safety codes for live/work units created as much controversy as in Fairview Village in Fairview, Oregon. Businesses on Village...
The General Services Administration (GSA) has developed a “kit of parts” consisting of benches, bollards, ornamental railings, and other elements that can help protect a building from attackers in vehicles and at the same time contribute to the...
Between 1979 and 1999, “middle-class households remained a significant, even growing presence in a number of mostly middle-sized cities such as Grand Rapids, Tacoma, and St. Petersburg,” says a Brookings Institution analysis of census data by Alan...
The Airport Authority of Gadsden, Alabama, recently selected a design team headed by Pittsburgh’s LaQuatra Bonci Associates to create a new urban master plan for 385 acres owned by the authority. Other team members include Michael Meddick, ACP...