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.
In a region where full-scale new urbanist neighborhoods are rare, town center revitalization projects are picking up steam.
Southern California is still lacking a good model for large traditional neighborhood development (TND). Playa Vista in Los...
Ridenour is one of the few large-scale developments planned in partnership with an environmental group. The goal was to “create a mixed-use community that would adhere to the principles of Georgia Conservancy’s ‘Blueprints for Successful Communities...
An obscure requirement of the 1997 Standard Building Code has temporarily stalled home construction in Longleaf, a TND in Odessa, Florida, reports developer Frank Starkey. Thirteen homes were already out of the ground when the local building...
Ground has been broken for the commercial town center in Park DuValle, the neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, built through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Hope VI program. The 25,000- square-foot town center will include retail...
“New Hampshire needs to develop a New Urbanism,” states Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Howard in a position paper on sprawl. Howard’s platform includes calls for reassessing zoning codes, reusing vacant buildings, paying more attention to...
The Denver/Boulder region is rapidly emerging as the metropolitan area with the largest concentration of new urbanist communities.
Someone looking to move to a newurbanist community in the next few years could find an abundance of choices below...
Vince Graham, whose credits include the acclaimed traditional neighborhood developments I’On and Newpoint, has tentatively agreed to codevelop a bayfront property.
After years of land acquisition, land clearing, and political wrangling, the 90-...
Rural-urban categorization system is touted as effective in coding, education, and design. The Transect, a new model for planning and coding the New Urbanism, is beginning to be employed in regional planning. Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (...
Collier County, Florida, has commissioned new urbanists Dover, Kohl & Partners to create a Community Character Plan for the 2,025 square mile county. The year long plan began with a charrette in April, 2000, and involves as many as 15 study...
Construction began on the town center of King Farm, a new urbanist project in Rockville, Maryland. The town center will include 125,000 square feet of retail, including a Safeway supermarket, smaller shops and restaurants, and apartments above the...
Mason Run, a 55-acre new neighborhood in Monroe, Michigan, recently went under construction on the site of a former paper mill. The city acquired the mill and sold off a portion to Crosswinds Communities, which hired Urban Design Associates of...
Prospect, a traditional neighborhood development in Longmont, Colorado, has opened its first commercial building. The 10,500-square-foot building is fully leased and houses a post office, several professional offices, and a cafe. In addition to...