The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

<p>There may not be a Times Square, but Los Angeles residents have created their own city centers wherever they can.</p>

January 4 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>John King, urban design critic for the SF Chronicle, concludes that the replacement of a 1959 freeway in the heart of San Francisco with an elaborate boulevard is an urban success story, and so does the APA.</p>

January 4 - The San Francisco Chronicle

<p>With some of the nation's longest between-stop distances, MARTA will assess the feasibility of leveraging the densification of intown Atlanta to construct new stations on existing rail lines.</p>

January 3 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<p>A major plan to renovate the New-York Historical Society has antagonized neighbors and preservationists in this upper west-side neighborhood, as the Society's plan also includes a 23-story apartment tower in a low rise neighborhood.</p>

January 3 - The New York Times

<p>Though Washington State's property-rights initiative failed to pass in November, opponents and supports are trying to work together to address some of the concerns of land owners who feel the current regulations are too strict.</p>

January 3 - The Seattle Times

<p>One commentator from Upstate New York ponders the increasing phenomenon of competing drug store chains popping up on the corners of suburban intersections.</p>

January 3 - The Buffalo News

<p>Voting sessions for the New Haven Board of Zoning Appeals are held at irregular times with little public notice, breeding accusations of an intentionally closed process.</p>

January 3 - New Haven Independent

<p>With a flurry of residential and mixed-use development planned for the city's downtown, local officials hope to create a comprehensive vision that all stakeholders in the area can support.</p>

January 3 - Austin American-Statesman

<p>Residents of Briny Breeze, a 43-acre incorporated town of trailer homes the hugs the Atlantic Ocean between Miami and Palm Beach, are considering accepting an offer of $510 million from a developer.</p>

January 3 - Associated Press via Gainsville Sun

<p>Commuter rail is an outdated model of transportation, and does little to reduce car use or promote transit-oriented development.</p>

January 3 - The Boston Globe

<p>Houston leaders need to be cautious that their 'plans' for the city don't stifle its greatest asset -- its economic opportunity and quality of life -- by introducing prescriptive land use zoning.</p>

January 3 - The Houston Chronicle

<p>A broad and controversial watershed protection plan for Florida's Miami-Dade County was released recently. It calls for a time extension on the county's urban development boundary to 2025 to help protect the area's water quality.</p>

January 3 - The Miami Herald

<p>Residents in one New York City neighborhood are split over whether the creation of an official historic district would help or hurt their community.</p>

January 2 - The New York Times

<p>Many in Toronto are hoping that this year's groundbreaking on the new Lake Ontario Park will help to create a new identity for the city. The park's designer is confident that it will.</p>

January 2 - The Globe and Mail

<p>Though hemmed in by urban development and eclipsed by the city's other two airports, plans to close down Tempelhof continue to meet resistance.</p>

January 2 - The Washington Post

<p>The Seattle Green Factor asks developers to choose from buffet of architectural features and landscape design options to decrease the environmental burden of new development.</p>

January 2 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

<p>Monica Howe, outreach coordinator for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, believes bike culture can transform Los Angeles.</p>

January 2 - The Los Angeles Times

<p>A Reagan-era "free market approach to conservation" that would deny federal flood insurance to sensitive lands is being undermined through the political process. Congress has granted two exceptions to the law for coastal areas in Georgia and Florida.</p>

January 2 - AP via San Francisco Chronicle

FEATURE

Though the program has good intentions, APA's proposal for mandatory continuing education could just encourage more planners to attend the National Planning Conference than to actually get more training.

January 2 - Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

<p>Transit officials in Washington D.C. have announced plans to build a new trolley car system beginning in 2007. Many in the city hope the new project will ease congestion in what is ranked the third most congested city in America.</p>

January 2 - The New York Sun