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 New Castle County, Delaware, the proposed TND Whitehall is in development limbo after four years of extensive negotiations. Designed by Angelo Alberto, Whitehall would consist of three compact villages on 2,047 acres, with almost 5,000 dwelling...
After much controversy and a seven-month delay, Nelessen & Associates of Princeton, New Jersey, have completed a Visual Preference Survey in Worcester County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The firm will draft a growth plan for the 300,000-acre...
Addison Circle, a high-density new urbanist development in Addison, Texas, continues to be highly successful. Developer Post Properties announced the complete lease up of phase 2 in April, 2000. Addison Circle now includes 1,070 apartments, 111,000...
A traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, provides evidence that a walkable community can be popular and have a measurable impact on school traffic.
Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Southern Village has 450...
Ordinance, Austin, Texas
Optional, adopted 1997.
Applies to sites from 40 to 250 acres.
TND must have neighborhood center area (NCA) and at least one mixed residential area (MRA).
Allocates minimum and maximum land use area percentages...
Market Place has pedestrian-oriented design elements, but critics argue that it will displace local merchants and diminish local character.
Is Market Place going to create a new neighborhood or destroy one? Is it an example of forward thinking...
England is feeling the effects of sprawl. According to the Danish architecture magazine Arkitekten, almost 70 percent of the youngest English school children walked to school in 1971 — now less than 10 percent do so. Fearful that English cities may...
The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently released its third annual brownfields report in which 231 cities provided information on the status of industrial sites in their communities. The report estimates that the cities hold more than 21,000...
Since 1995, the City of Aspen, Colorado, has had a set of residential design standards for new construction intended to preserve the scale and character of established neighborhoods. Front facades of all principal structures must be parallel to the...
Morrison Homes, the nation’s 30th largest homebuilder with revenues of $518 million and 2,639 units built in 1999, is expanding its work in traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs). The company began working in Celebration three years ago and...
Recognizing that sprawl is probably the biggest local environmental issue in northern Georgia, the Georgia Conservancy has become one of the first environmental groups to become actively involved in land use planning.
Retail activity on the nation’s main streets continues its upward trend, according to a survey by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center. More than 400 communities in 36 states responded to the annual Main Street Trends...