Land Use

The First Baptist Church of Mandarin applied to build a 249,000 sq. ft. complex in a rural area. They're suing the city in federal court, on the grounds that they're getting "unequal and discriminatory treatment."

A new line of Portland's MAX light rail system has opened, prefacing the coming decades of rail growth in the region.

Public space plays an important role in cities. Essential to creating good public spaces, according to this commentary from The Nation, is the art community.

San Francisco's Market St. is the main street in town, but has had mixed success as a public space and a history of accidents involving pedestrians and bikes. Mayor Newsom has announced a new effort to improve safety and the public realm.

The Los Angeles Times has mapped the city's medical marijuana dispensaries, and found many that fall within a proposed buffer that would keep the outlets away from schools, parks and libraries.

With names like Aspen Grove and Sunrise Park, you might mistake these suburb designs for the real thing. But something's not quite right in artist Ross Racine's birds-eye views of imaginary suburbs.

Seattle is in the midst of a mayoral election, and while typical election issues are getting their own share of lip service from the candidates, land use is being overlooked.

U.S. Military bases in Iraq are being consolidated, but their footprint is hard to ignore. Many operate much like small cities, housing as many as 20,000 people and all the services and infrastructure they require.

Architect Ronald Rael proposes preserving the discarded span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and turning it into a park and mixed-use development, in the spirit of NY's High Line.

Bill Fulton visits Portland, and comes back with six practical lessons that other cities can take from the 'planner's nirvana.'

Citywide metro rail service is set to begin operations today in Dubai. The system will start out with ten operational stations, but eventually include 47 stops along 70 kilometers of track.

The city of San Francisco has barricaded two new large swatches of land to be used as part of its Pavement to Parks projects, and is enjoying a flood of support from residents, businesses, politicians, and local educational institutions.

Monopoly: City Streets melds the board game with Google Maps gives you the chance to buy the world's streets and develop your dream project on them (in competition with other players, of course.)

As the push for renewable energy increases, The Nature Conservancy points out that renewables need a lot of land to work and could cause "energy sprawl."

Neal Peirce says this is a 'bonanza decade' for parks, thanks to the many benefits of parks to cities and a 'wow' factor found in some of the newest parks around the U.S., including St. Louis' Citygarden and Manhattan's High Line Park.

Competition was stiff for prime picnic spots in a Washington, D.C. park this Labor Day, prompting locals to set up as early as 2:30am. Is this an indicator of a growing need for public parks and civic spaces?

A new Transportation Research Board study examines the relationship between land use and carbon emissions - specifically reduction of vehicle miles traveled resulting from densification and the shape of new growth to come.

Edward Lifson talks to architect Tadao Ando about his work masterplanning Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics.

This week's episode of Smart City features a discussion with planner Larry Beasley about how love can be an economic driver for cities, and how planning around emotions can improve cities.