New Laws for New Land Uses

In recent years, there has been a shift away from lower-density, car-oriented development, in which residential and nonresidential uses are segregated, toward more compact, mixed-use development. The latter, often defined as the new urbanism, can take other forms with names such as neotraditional or transit-oriented development, but it usually is characterized by higher-density housing designed to encourage social interaction. Such developments de-emphasize cars by locating commercial and office land uses close to residential uses. In addition to creating a renewed sense of livability, new urbanist communities are addressing myriad environmental issues, including traffic congestion and its associated air pollution and the loss of forests and farmland due to urban sprawl.NOTE: The full text of this article may only be available to ULI members.

Thanks to Urban Land Magazine