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.
Under a new ordinance, TND is a development option anywhere within the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. City planners developed the ordinance during the building of Mechanicsville Commons, a Hope VI redevelopment of a public housing project. It applies...
The National Town Builders Association (NTBA) has announced the first item in its planned Town Building Marketplace. Full members of NTBA can now enjoy rebates on the purchase of Windsor Windows, the first line of windows to be made entirely of...
In January, CNU and the Seaside Institute hosted a groundbreaking academic conference in Seaside, Florida. It marked the first time that a multi-disciplinary group of social researchers and practitioners gathered expressly to discuss the issues...
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...
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...
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...