Land Use

David Alpert provides a thorough analysis of the first third of Washington D.C.'s proposed new zoning code, and finds a return to kind of development patterns that formed the neighborhoods residents treasure today.

February 8, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Chuck Wolfe uses the urban scale adaptive reuse of the Roman Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace in Split, Croatia to argue for blending the past and future on a broader scale.

February 8, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Andrew H. Whittemore contends that planners dismiss the far-fetched theories of a grand United Nations sustainability conspiracy at their own peril.

February 8, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Three years after its adoption, Sean McCaughan assesses the impact of Miami 21, first New Urbanist zoning code adopted by a major American city.

February 7, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

Stephanie Clifford documents the extraordinary lengths malls across the country are going to in hopes of attracting customers in the face of e-commerce and a battered economy.

February 7, 2012 - The New York Times

The new exhibit at Toyko's Mori Art Museum will be the first architecture showcase since the 2011 earthquake, and displays a movement central to the country's history of building and rebuilding.

February 7, 2012 - The New York Times

Scott Doyon argues for a stripped-down, back-to-basics 'punk rock' approach to urban growth and development to replace the 'rock and roll' excesses of planning during the housing boom; and he profiles the new innovators who are doing just that.

February 5, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Marc Santora pens a pity piece for the fate of the automobile in New York City. Whereas, once upon a time the car was doing the bullying, the 'once-exalted automobile is now under siege.'

February 3, 2012 - The New York Times

Joseph Berger reports on New York City's efforts to protect local retailers with new zoning in Manhattan's Upper West Side, where the proliferation of chain stores, banks, and pharmacies have caused consternation.

February 3, 2012 - The New York Times

The city’s MillionTrees program fights asthma and global warming. But tightening maintenance budgets, increasingly severe weather and decades-old planting decisions complicate trees’ contribution.

February 1, 2012 - City Limits

Even in New York City, it's a pain to try to "green" a building with insulation, overhangs, and other methods that violate zoning. Katharine Jose reports on the Zone Green Text Amendment, which addresses such impediments, and the team behind it.

January 31, 2012 - Capital New York

The prior code, adopted in 1962 and amended with with nearly 1,000 ad-hoc revisions since then, required a strict separation of uses and outlawed the classic Philadelphia rowhouse typology.

January 26, 2012 - APA Sustaining Places

The San Francisco neighborhood of Chinatown temporarily removed parking from Stockton Street for a week during the busy Lunar New Year season. Aaron Bialick reports on the results.

January 26, 2012 - Streetsblog San Francisco

Nate Berg reports on information compiled in the 8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, and asks to what extent the affordability of housing is tied to land use policies and how much is related to other factors.

January 25, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

A neighborhood in Tarzana, one of the few residential areas in Los Angeles County that allows raising livestock, battles developmental pressures. The latest proposal: razing five homes for an elderly care center.

January 25, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

Paul Knight delivers an impassioned defense of the gridded urban form against its many criticisms -- that its boring, its unnatural, its only use is to maximize profits for developers, etc.

January 23, 2012 - TheGreatAmericanGrid.com

Are cities across the country acting negligently in ignoring the property tax implications of different development types? Joseph Minicozzi thinks so, and he's done the math to prove it.

January 23, 2012 - Joseph Minicozzi

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh and his team went from designing a new campus to an entirely new collaborative city in downtown Las Vegas for Zappos employees and other emerging members of the creative class.

January 23, 2012 - CNN Money - Fortune Tech

Dave Gardetta highlights the work of Donald Shoup and others whose mission is to eradicate the parking minimum in Los Angeles.

January 20, 2012 - Los Angeles Magazine

However one's feelings on zoning, New York City's Resolution has changed over the years to positively reinforce good social initiatives over the outright banishment of negative uses, Julie V. Iovine reports.

January 20, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal