Phoenix has the zoning for more height in its downtown, and future development might finally yield a more recognizable skyline.

Grace Oldham reports from Phoenix to explain the city's short building stock compared to many other cities of comparable population and preview how recent zoning code changes could yield taller buildings on the city's skyline.
Oldham interviews Joshua Bednarek, Phoenix's deputy director of planning, on the subject of the city's shorter skyline. Bednarek gives credit to the automobile for spreading the city out, and preventing the development of a vertical downtown. "With infrastructure and technology allowing increased accessibility to the entire Valley, residential and business patterns never created pressure to develop work and living space in the city's core," writes Oldham.
The city also planned for a "village system" in the 1980s, spreading its highest buildings around the city, further ensuring that the city lacks big, signature skyscrapers. Still, Downtown Phoenix has emerged "as the hub of the polycentric system today much more so than in the past," according to Bednarek, and zoning changes in 2010 and 2015 could encourage new height in the downtown core.
FULL STORY: 'Polycentric city': Why doesn't downtown Phoenix have more skyscrapers?

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Texas, California Rail Projects Seek Out Private Funding
In the wake of Trump’s cuts to high-speed rail projects, rail authorities are looking to private-public partnerships to supplement their budgets.

Addressing Rural Homelessness in Kentucky
A Kentucky Lantern series focuses on the challenges unhoused Kentuckians face and efforts to provide support and assistance.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing
The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.
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.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions