Land Use

Newport Bridge

Urban Plan Ready for Public Scrutiny in Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island is undertaking a major planning initiative during the pandemic.

October 15, 2020 - NewportRI.com

New York City Tech Office

Big Tech Bets on the Big Apple

Amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic, the four biggest U.S. technology companies have leased or bought enough office space in New York City for 22,000 employees.

October 15, 2020 - The New York Times

Dayton, Ohio

The 3 Types of Developers and Why the Difference Matters

Developers are frequently cast as a kind of monolithic bad guy in the politics of development, but developers are cut from different cloths, each with distinct interests and motivations.

October 14, 2020 - Strong Towns

Google Corporate Headquarters

Google's Big Mixed-Use Plans for Downtown San Jose Come Into Focus

Google's plan for a mixed-use transit village at a mile-long site near the Diridon Station in San Jose has a newly released planning document available for public review.

October 13, 2020 - Smart Cities Dive

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Rezoning Every Residential Neighborhood in Cambridge for Affordable Apartment Buildings

Cambridge, Massachusetts has opened all residential neighborhoods to the development of apartments buildings with 100 percent affordable units. It might be the most "sweeping attack on elitist and racist single family zoning" in the country.

October 13, 2020 - Wicked Local

Accessory Dwelling Units

'Permit Ready Plans' for ADUs Published in Stockton, California

Cities looking to provide incentive for the construction of accessory dwelling units are increasingly released "permit ready plans" to help the cause.

October 12, 2020 - City of Stockton

Coronavirus Protest

Do We Know Any More About the Future of Cities Than We Did in April 2020?

The conversation about how the pandemic might alter the direction of planning and urbanism, unlike the spread of the coronavirus, has remained steady since March.

October 12, 2020 - James Brasuell

5/605 Interchange

Planned Highway Widening Requires Eminent Domain in Southern California

Advocates are calling out regional and state transportation planning agencies for a failure of racial justice as plans to widen a freeway in Southern California move forward.

October 11, 2020 - Streetsblog Los Angeles

North Carolina Flooding

Flood Risk Upends the North Carolina Housing Market

Inequalities in the housing market of coastal North Carolina communities have already been exacerbated by the effects of extreme weather and climate change.

October 9, 2020 - NRDC

The Stitch

3 Freeway Cap Projects Designed to Undo the Racism of the Past

A trio of freeway cap proposals around the country—in St. Paul, Atlanta, and Austin—embody the potential of infrastructure change to undo the mistakes of the past.

October 8, 2020 - UrbanLand

Inland Empire

General Plan, Development Code Update Planned in San Bernardino, California

Big planning and code changes are on tap for the city of San Bernardino in the Inland Empire.

October 8, 2020 - The San Bernardino Sun

Montgomery County Public Transit

Tax Break Offered for Transit Oriented Development in Maryland's Montgomery County

The Montgomery County Council approved a property tax break as an incentive for high-rise rental developments located on Metro station properties.

October 8, 2020 - Bethesda Magazine

Small Jazz Club New York

Trump Decision to Bail on Federal Stimulus Pushes Music Venues Over the Brink

Public transit, employment, homelessness, foreclosures—all hang in the balance as the federal government falters with a proposed economic recovery package. So does the prospect of going to a show after the pandemic.

October 8, 2020 - Vice

6th Street Viaduct

Designing Safe Passage for Steelhead Trout Through the L.A. River

The Southern California steelhead was added to the federal endangered species list in 1997. Today, planners are working to create a new home for the trout in the L.A. River.

October 7, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Balboa Peninsula

California's 'Split Roll' Property Tax Reform, Explained

California voters will consider a landmark reform of its infamous property tax system this November. Prop. 15 would remove property tax caps on commercial properties established by Prop. 13 in 1978.

October 7, 2020 - CALmatters

Thailand

As U.S. Transportation Infrastructure Holds Back Economic Recovery, It's Time for Change

Opinion: Six months into the pandemic, the state of the U.S. economy reveals that the planning profession can support struggling Americans by focusing on transportation and the land use patterns that enable mass transit.

October 7, 2020 - James Brasuell

San Francisco Bay Area

On the Ballot in Alameda: The End of Single-Family Zoning

Voters in Alameda, a city of nearly 80,000 people on an island in the East San Francisco Bay Area, will vote to end a prohibition on multi-family housing that has been in place since 1973.

October 6, 2020 - Alameda Sun

Houston, Texas

The Social Dynamics of Houston's Urban Expansion

A new study published in the Land Use Policy journal explains how Houston's rapid expansion occurred, and why it matters.

October 6, 2020 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research: The Urban Edge

Coronavirus in Oregon

Strange Days: Outrage Absent as Businesses Reclaim Parking Spots

It took a pandemic, but the worldwide effort to move restaurant and retail businesses outside, at the expense of parking, is proving far less controversial than it would have before the coronavirus swept the globe.

October 6, 2020 - NPR

Chicago, Illinois

A Pro-Development Approach to Housing Affordability and Economic Growth

Decades of building housing on the fringes of metropolitan areas have mired the United States in a housing affordability crisis defined by a widening gap between the haves and the have nots.

October 6, 2020 - Vox

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.