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,...
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...
Alan Hoffman, one of the founders of Aldea, a new urban community underway near Santa Fe, NM, is now proposing Oshara Village, a new town with 735 units and substantial commercial, also near Santa Fe. The town’s plaza would be bounded on one side...
Calgary’s first new urban form-based code has been drafted to direct redevelopment of an 83-acre area between downtown and Fort Calgary, a historical park. About 9,000 new residents plus commercial uses and possibly a college campus are planned to...
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute, in Victoria, British Columbia, has added a new chapter titled “Roadway Connectivity” to its “Online Transit Demand Management Encyclopedia.” The chapter discusses well-connected road or path networks, which...