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.
With a unanimous vote of city council, San Antonio approved a form-based code for optional use citywide. The Form-Based Zoning District (FBZD), based on the SmartCode, began with a Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company charrette and was customized by...
New Urban Free Agents, sponsored by the New Urban Guild, is a network of free-agent planners, architects, and designers who have worked within the New Urbanism. “Almost all architecture and design firms have been laying off employees since the...
A four-year effort to place the city of Miami under a new urbanist zoning system failed in August when the City Commission deadlocked on the proposal, known as “Miami 21.” However, the code, which was formulated under the guidance of Duany Plater-...
This month, Vancouver, British Columbia, will begin allowing developers to build condominium units that include “secondary suites” — living quarters that can operate independent of the main portion of each condo. A condo owner could use the...
From Despair to Hope is the story of the transformation of public housing, a story that deeply involves New Urbanism.
Patrick L. Phillips, president and CEO of ERA AECOM (formerly Economics Research Associates), will become the new CEO of the Urban Land Institute Sept. 14. It appears that ULI will continue to emphasize smart growth policies, which have become a...
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced his support in August for a 16-mile light-rail line that would tie together many northern suburbs of Washington, DC. Transit advocates say the proposed Purple Line, which would run from an existing...
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) accreditation program is gathering momentum. The professional program, announced by CNU in June and managed in partnership with the University of Miami, was established “to recognize the talent within the new...
The Prince’s Foundation uses traditional urbanism to reclaim difficult settings.��A Caribbean version of new urbanist techniques is being relied upon to rebuild an impoverished part of West Kingston, Jamaica, that has been ravaged by 30 years of...
Beyond economy-wide pricing measures, land use strategies are the most effective long-term way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report’s authors, Cambridge Systematics.
Over the last few years, CNU’s annual transportation summit has become one of the nation’s top forums for advancing highly-connected, multimodal transportation networks.
The Smart Growth Schools website, designed to help people understand how they can improve their schools and communities through smart growth principles, was created recently. Overseen by Nathan Norris, Director of Implementation Advisory for...