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.
A new urbanist community is far more complex, and therefore more risky to finance, than a conventional subdivision. But with this complexity comes the possibility of creating a much greater long-term value. That’s the conclusion drawn by Tom Low, an...
The New Jersey state plan calls for compact, mixed-use development, but the bureaucracy supports sprawl. Washington Town Center has forced officials to confront this inconsistency.
When Washington Township created its town center plan, it applied...
Even as recent estimates indicate a rise in the amount of money going to TNDs, the conservative financial market still hedges its bets on the New Urbanism.
More than 125 traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) are under construction, as are...
A new smart growth law in Wisconsin, passed by the state legislature in October 1999, contains two components that specifically promote new urbanist development. The law was written by 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, and requires the University of...
Homestyles.com (formerly Homestyles Pub-
lishing), the people behind the TND Series of neotraditional home plans, has launched TNDhomes.com, an electronic gateway to home plans and traditional neighborhood development. The web site includes most of...
The Round, a transit-oriented development in Beaverton, Oregon, remains in development limbo (see July/August 1999 issue). Developer BCB Group has not been able to secure financing, and the City of Beaverton now has taken legal measures to force BCB...
Abacoa has sold 525 homes since it opened in the summer of 1997. “Our home sales have picked up, because all of our amenities are falling into place,” says Nader Salour, president of Abacoa Development Company. In a large- scale TND like Abacoa, all...
A 300,000 square foot retail and entertainment center is now under construction as part of Peabody Place, an eight-block revitalization project in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Master planned by Baltimore-based design firm RTKL for developer Belz...
Joe Storch is selling his corner store in Southern Village, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The 2,000 square foot store, with seating for 75, has already been through several proprietors since it opened...
To ease financing, developers of TNDs need to reduce the risk premium for the lenders who make the initial loans for land acquisition, development, and construction (ADC).
In Michigan, an edge city is trying to become more like a real city.
If ever a place could be classified as a landmark of suburbia, it would be the Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan. Built in 1954, it was the first enclosed suburban...
Walgreen Co. has signed an agreement with the City of Chicago to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 Walgreens drugstores in the city during the next two years. The guidelines are designed to prevent construction of suburban...