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.
Authentic Development Patterns for Small Towns and Rural Areas By Christopher J. Duerksen and James van Hemert American Planning Association, 2003, 248 pp., paperback. $59.95. “The Old West is rapidly giving way to a New West that bears...
The first phase of Cornerstone, a $60 million town center in Parma Heights, Ohio, will open late this year or early in 2005. Anchored by Claire’s Folly, an 84,000-square-foot family entertainment center including a dinner theater, a brewpub, and a...
Communities increasingly worry about big-box stores because mammoth warehouse-like retail emporiums tend to be cheaply built and are prone to abandonment after several years. “Across the country, 245 former Wal-Marts sit empty or partially empty,”...
Bill Dennis, director of the Albuquerque office of Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists, is leaving the firm April 1 to start his own Albuquerque-based urban design consulting firm, B. Dennis Town & Building Design. Its website will...
Want images that show how communities can be designed for walking and bicycling? The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has teamed up with Walkable Communities Inc. and the Institute of Transportation Engineers...
CNU welcomes Payton Chung to its Chicago headquarters staff. Payton is the main contact for membership, order, and reference inquiries; he also coordinates technology and special projects for the office. Originally from North Carolina, Payton...
The Bixby Company announced that ground has broken on the Hercules Waterfront, a 21-acre mixed-use town center that will form the heart of a new urban town in Hercules, California. The initial phase will include 14 live/work houses, each three...
Madison, Wisconsin, has adopted an ordinance that requires developers of projects of 10 or more housing units to set aside 15 percent of the units for people who earn less than the Dane County median income. In exchange for providing the affordable...
The Northshore Town Center, described as a 141-acre new urban development near Knoxville, Tennessee, is slated to break ground soon. The James Doran Company is planning 120 detached houses, 450 apartments, 150 townhouses, shops, a 20-screen movie...
Homes are under construction in Wabash Crossing, formerly called the Near North Neighborhood, in Decatur, Illinois. The 120-acre project is partly funded by a Hope VI grant of $34.9 million. It includes the demolition of the 20-acre Longview Place...
Planning consultant Randall Arendt has produced a 60-minute video, “Creating Traditional Neighborhoods with Conservation Design Principles: The Greener Aspects of New Urbanism,” which aims at bridging the gaps separating land-use planners,...
Pennsylvania intends to launch an Elm Street Program to revitalize old residential areas near downtown commercial districts. State Rep. Robert Freeman, a Democrat representing the Easton area, proposed the program, which will provide money for trees...