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.
Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America’s Environment, Economy and Social Fabric offers an in-depth look at sprawl and its alternatives within a social context. Published by The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)...
Frijoles Village, a 345-acre TND near Santa Fe, New Mexico, recently received a loan from Los Alamos National Bank to build phase one infrastructure and pay back a $1 million predevelopment loan. Phase one includes 220 residential lots, 20...
CNU’s Executive Director Shelley Poticha has been to Washington, D.C., twice recently to advocate at the federal level for policies that will rejuvenate cities, curb sprawl, and promote development that will create livable communities with...
The University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning recently hosted its first Detroit Urban Design Charrette, organized by new dean and long-time new urbanist Doug Kelbaugh. The five day charrette developed plans for a poor inner...
Riverside in Atlanta, an 85-acre neotraditional development by Post Properties, was named the “Mixed Use Deal of the Decade” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The first phase, built around a town square based on Princeton, New Jersey, included 245,...
Project in Jersey City pushes the envelope in terms of density and transit access.
A new waterfront neighborhood isplanned in Jersey City, New Jersey, using urbanism based on Central Park West, Grammercy Park, and other Manhattan neighborhoods....
Corporations are rediscovering the benefits of pedestrian-oriented environments.
Office parks, with gleaming glass buildings surounded by parking, are the workplace equivalent of the cookie-cutter subdivision. Although office parks still...
Suffolk, Virginia, planners developed an ordinance that uses “incentive zoning” to apply new urbanist planning and design principles, according to a recent editorial in The Virginian-Pilot. The city’s rapid growth and increasing residential land...
The Conservation Law Foundation recently issued City Routes,City Rights, an 80-page guidebook for urban grassroots activists, educators, and local policymakers concerned with improving transportation and environmental quality in urban areas. The...
Joseph Barnes, former town architect at Disney’s Celebration, was hired as vice president and general manager overseeing day-to-day operations at I’On, a 243-acre traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Barnes was...
The popular event featured case studies from production builders and presentations of practical techniques for new urbanist projects.
The main-stream development community poured into Chicago April 7 through 9 and showed its interest in learning...
The Richmond Better Housing Coalition opened the first phase of Winchester Greens, an 84-acre new urbanist development built for moderate income residents. The first 100 townhomes are renting for $475 to $620, according to T.K. Samanath of the...