Land Use

Cleveland Clears the Way for its First Parklet

Cleveland will soon have its first park let—thanks to the leadership of the nonprofit Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp., the collective generosity of Cleveland Collectivo and more, and the approval of the Cleveland Planning Commission.

June 23, 2015 - The Plain Dealer

School Sprawl

The Hidden Costs of Locating Schools on the Outskirts

St. Cloud, Minnesota is considering the question of whether to renovate or rebuild—and where to rebuild—a local high school.

June 23, 2015 - SCTimes

Seattle Mixed Use Development

Seattle NIMBYs Protest Dense Development, Cite Eastern Bloc

A zoning bill has stirred up the fear that dense development projects will transform Seattle into a "Soviet cityscape." Residents accuse developers of using loopholes to squeeze in pricey, out-of-character townhomes.

June 23, 2015 - The Seattle Times

Dot Map LA

Diverse on Paper, Segregated in Reality

Many places are statistically diverse, but their inhabits can be worlds apart. A local perspective (and finer data) is needed to fully appreciate how different races and classes inhabit a neighborhood.

June 22, 2015 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Denver Skyline

Planners Across America: Brad Buchanan Shepherds Denver's Explosive Growth

In this interview for the "Planners Across America" series, Denver Planning Director Brad Buchanan details Denver's efforts to reactivate the urban core with strong planning, transit investments, and new residential and commercial developments.

June 22, 2015 - Josh Stephens

Planning Efforts Taking Off in Downtown Dallas

The Dallas Arts District will make a selection of a planning firm in the coming weeks to update the seminal 193 Sasaki plan responsible for much of the area's transformation in recent years and decades.

June 21, 2015 - The Dallas Morning News

How to Make the Helena, Montana Urban Standards Boundary Work

Recent work by the American Planning Association’s professional institute’s Community Planning Assistance Teams program examined the case study provided by growth management challenges in and around the city of Helena, Montana.

June 21, 2015 - American Planning Association

New Designs for Los Angeles Convention Center Expansion Revealed

New renderings for Populous & HMC Architects winning proposal give a close-up look at the new-and-improved Los Angeles Convention Center.

June 20, 2015 - Urbanize LA

How One Plan Manages Growth in London

While still deeply attached to its history, today London is grappling with rapid population growth. The ensuing need to increase density in appropriate areas and improve connectivity present London with challenges of a quintessentially modern kind.

June 20, 2015 - The Planning Report

Angelino Heights

Mapping the Age of Every Building in Los Angeles

Developed using open data from local government sources, built: LA is a mapping tool that displays the age of every building in the county. Much of the area's built environment is surprisingly old.

June 19, 2015 - CityLab

Support for Walmart Grows Nationally

Opposition to Walmart is now holding at just 50 percent, when people are asked how they would feel if a Walmart was proposed "in your community." Support for Walmart is up 16 percentage points since 2006.

June 19, 2015 - The Saint Index

Should Egypt Build a New Capital to Replace Cairo?

Reviewing the plausibility of replacing the thousand-year-old capital of Cairo with a new, master planner, $45 billion capital city.

June 18, 2015 - Global Site Plans

Vancouver

How Cities Grow Big; Not How Big Cities Grow!

Can cities stop growth? is there an ideal size for a city-region? What really matters is HOW a city grows big, not how big a city grows. Design matters. When people suggest a city is getting too big, shift the conversation from quantity to quality.

June 16, 2015 - Brent Toderian

San Jose Arterial Street

Study Measures Street Connectivity for Evidence of Sprawl's Decline

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds evidence of the decline of sprawl as the dominant form of construction in the United States and attracted lots of media attention in the process.

June 16, 2015 - Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences

Elysian Valley Home

Residents Want a Say as Los Angeles Neighborhood Changes

The big market forces of Los Angeles long ignored Elysian Valley, colloquially called Frogtown. But now the neighborhood has hip cachet and residents are organizing to have a say as the area changes.

June 15, 2015 - Los Angeles Review of Books

Toward a Definition of Mixed-Use

A panel at the recent Urban Land Institute conference in Houston considers the imperative of understanding mixed-use development and its various forms.

June 13, 2015 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Prop. 13 Under the Microscope Again in California

Long considered a roadblock to raising the revenues necessary to run California, Prop. 13 is one of the country's most notorious political third rails. Two state senators, however, would roll back Prop 13 protections for commercial properties.

June 12, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Minneapolis Green Line University of Minnesota

Minneapolis Ordinance Would Eliminate Parking Requirements Near Transit

Imagine the kind of infill housing developments that could follow if Minneapolis approves a proposed ordinance to reduce and eliminate parking requirements for transit-adjacent developments all over the city.

June 11, 2015 - Streets MN

Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown: Another Downtown Revitalizes

Earning negative press as a put-America-back-to-work campaign stop, the Ohio city also suffered from reported connections to crime. Now private developers are working alongside Youngstown State to bring people back.

June 11, 2015 - New York Times

SimCity 2013

Full-Scale 'SimCity' Will Be Tech Testing Ground

Devoid of a human population, the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE) is a planned, privately-operated trial lab for the smart city. The CITE design calls for a small, fully-functioning ghost town.

June 11, 2015 - Wired

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.