A Cautionary Tale Of New Urbanism

"...If New Urbanism principles are toreach far across the American landscape, theyhave to be applied not just to the new, but alsoto well-worn districts and suburbs. And herethe concepts encounter problems, as onemoving part affects another and everythingrubs up against someone’s comfort zone.A cautionary lesson may be found close tomy home, in the case of Target v Santa Monica.This is not literally a legal matter, althoughit could have come to that if theMinneapolis-based Target, one of America’sbiggest discount department store chains, hadchosen to play it that way. Target and its developmentpartner spent three years andmore than $250,000 trying to get permissionto build a primped-up flagship in the midst ofSanta Monica’s revived downtown, only to beturned down this winter because -- well, that'sthe story."Editor's Note: The link below will open an Acrobat PDF file.