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 path has been cleared for Atlantic Station (formerly Atlantic Steel), the $2 billion mixed-use, brownfield project in Midtown Atlanta. Demolition of the old steel mill and remediation of the site is close to complete, and with the final...
Landscape architect David Yocca and his firm Conservation Design Forum of Elmhurst, Illinois, have been hired to design a new urbanist community on an 831-acre site in the small town of Plano, about 50 miles from downtown Chicago. Yocca has...
David Weekly Homes is the latest builder to join neotraditional Avalon Park in east Orlando, Florida. Weekly purchased 90 home sites in the fast-selling project, and will offer homes ranging from $200,000 to $350,000. Weekly is already building in...
Federal Small Business Administration loans support sprawl, according to a lawsuit filed by environmentalists. Friends of the Earth and the Forest Conservation Council analyzed SBA loans in the Washington, DC, area during the last three years and...
Edwards Construction Co. was awarded a contract to build a four-story, 100,000 sq. ft. building with 51 rental apartments above commercial in the town center of Avalon Park, near Orlando, Florida. Construction bids for a 8,000 sq. ft. medical center...
Since 1996, CNU has been working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reform the design of public housing. That partnership is about to produce a major tool to promote new urbanist principles: the HOPE VI design manual,...
Developers of downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, have temporarily given up on luring a major cinema chain as part of the city’s million-plus sq. ft. new urban redevelopment. Still, developers say they remain confident, citing the Discovery...
Codevelopers Leyland Development Co. and East Beach Renaissance — together East Beach Co. — signed a letter of intent with the city of Norfolk, Virginia, to break ground on the $200 million East Beach project. It appears that after years of site...
According to Joe Barker of the development partnership Nashville Urban Venture LLC, the Gulch Neighborhood is the single largest redevelopment project in Nashville’s history. Strategically located between the downtown business and entertainment...
In several new urban communities, accessory dwelling units are strong sellers and offer benefits to both home owners and developers. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) appear under many aliases — granny flats, garage apartments, carriage houses,...
Sarasota 2050 Plan, a ground-breaking regional analysis, calls for infill redevelopment, new villages, and open space preservation. Amajor regional plan nearing completion in Sarasota County, Florida, makes a fiscal case for the New Urbanism.
Project New Town is the provisional name for what could become Wisconsin’s largest development with a new urbanist pattern. The project is proposed for a 430-acre greenfield site in Sun Prairie and would include 1,600 residences, retail, and a...