Public Policy
DPZ Promotes Mall Makeovers
Firm Suggests Model Legislation in Florida Will Florida put the “suburban retrofitting” movement on the fast track? Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) is providing state officials with a legislative template to do just that. On April 20, the Miami-based design and planning firm submitted to Florida’s Division of Community Assistance a suggested draft for a State…
Read MoreAtlanta’s Lifelong Communities Charrette Delivers the Goods
Atlanta’s landmark charrette on planning for “Lifelong Communities” wrapped on February 17, with an Andres Duany presentation to a downtown auditorium packed with some 500 people. On February 11, the opening night of the weeklong event, Kathryn Lawler, who coordinated the ambitious project for the Atlanta Regional Commission, explained that one key goal for the…
Read MoreAtlanta, AARP, DPZ Attack Challenges of Aging in Place
The New Urbanist mantra for neighborhood planning is to go for compact, connected, and complete. Well, one critical component of completeness, that of making communities comfortable – and practical – for residents of all ages, has been sort of assumed by NU planners. Yet it’s taken an effort by the nation’s primary advocacy group for…
Read MoreWill Economic Woes Stall the Green Movement?
When we got a note from colleagues in Chattanooga, Tennessee, letting us know that that their city had not only crafted a Climate Action Plan but was also set to create a new office of sustainability, it got us to thinking: Is the competition for funding in the deepening recession going to kill momentum for…
Read More“Just Building Sprawl” is Over, But How?
When President Obama declared, before an audience in Ft. Myers, Florida, on Feb. 10, an end to “just building sprawl forever” (fast-forward to around 58:58 for the money quote), it may have signaled a change of venue in the battle over how the stimulus package is interpreted and applied. Up until Obama left Washington for…
Read MoreStimulus Showdown
When the Democrats’ $825 billion economic stimulus seemed to choose same-ol’ over sustainable, Smart Growth advocates and New Urbanists began turning up the heat. Favoring super highways over mass transit, rail, pedestrian, and biking alternatives incentivized sprawl for decades. And isn’t sprawl part of what got us in this mess? Smart Growth advocates believe investing…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading: Retrofitting Suburbia
Considerable attention has been paid to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the exurban periphery. But in between, the out-of-date and unsustainable developments in existing suburbs also provide enormous opportunities for regeneration. Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs, by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, is a comprehensive guidebook that illustrates how…
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