Brightly lit pedestrian and commercial districts like Times Square and Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo are some of the most famous urban environments in the world. But that doesn’t mean they work in every city.

Mimi Kirk reports for CityLab on the efforts in Atlanta to develop a "bright lights district" akin to Times Square in New York. "The organization Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) is spearheading the effort to relax signage restrictions so that property owners can go bigger and brighter," writes Kirk.
Currently the city's zoning code caps signs at a maximum of 200 square feet. The group is pushing to allow bigger and brighter signs.
An earlier article by Amy Wenk reports on more of the details of the city ordinance that would enable the bright lights district. According to Wenk, the district "would stretch from the Georgia World Congress Center east to Piedmont Avenue, and from the attractions at Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard south to Underground Atlanta. The district would include the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Philips Arena, The Tabernacle and Georgia Aquarium." The ordinance could go before the Atlanta City Council for a vote as soon as January.
In the article for CityLab, Kirk supplements a discussion of the details of the new ordinance with insight from Margaret Petty, head of the School of Design at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology, and Josiane Meier, lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin and co-editor of Urban Lighting, Light Pollution, and Society. Both those experts throw cold water on the idea that a bright lights district will attract tourists and visitors without additional key ingredients like density. There are also drawbacks to the environmental impact of bigger and brighter signs.
FULL STORY: Atlanta's Plan to Create Its Own Times Square

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

Has President Trump Met His Match?
Doug Ford, the no-nonsense premier of Canada's most populous province, Ontario, is taking on Trump where it hurts — making American energy more expensive.

OKC Approves 7.2 Miles of New Bike Lanes
The city council is implementing its BikeWalkOKC plan, which recommends new bike lanes on key east-west corridors.

Preserving Houston’s ‘Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing’
Unsubsidized, low-cost rental housing is a significant source of affordable housing for Houston households, but the supply is declining as units fall into disrepair or are redeveloped into more expensive units.

The Most Popular Tree on Google?
Meet Rodney: the Toronto tree getting rave reviews.
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.
Florida Atlantic University
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland