Austin
30-Story Mixed-Use Tower Planned for Downtown Austin—Without Parking
Thanks to the elimination of minimum parking requirements downtown, a vacant one-story building "could be transformed into a 30-story tower with 135 luxury apartments, office space, a restaurant and a bar," reports the Austin-American Statesman.
Austin Waterfront District Due for Big Redevelopment Investments
The city of Austin is hoping to avoid a "piecemeal, haphazard" approach to redevelopment in the South Central waterfront district.
Austin Updates Small-Lot Amnesty Program
The city of Austin has approved land use regulation changes on one of those traditional hot button planning issues: small-lot developments.
In Austin, Corporations Don't Get Paid for Promises
Austin is pushing its economic development policy to go beyond chasing the big deal.

Austin Denies Mixed-Use Zoning Change
Following concerns that the change would threaten Thornton Road Studios, a collection of arts and music businesses, the Austin City Council struck down a measure that would allow mixed-use development on the site.
Homelessness Growing in Austin—For the First Time in Years
The state capital of Texas is not immune to the growing numbers of homeless in cities around the country.
Big Expansion Approved for Austin-Area Highway
The Transportation Policy Board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization approved a big spending increase for a project to widen U.S. Highway 183.
Austin Transit Planners Regroup After Bond Defeat
The voters of Austin rejected a $1 billion transportation bond in 2014, but transit advocates and Capital Metro staff are already reorganizing to make a new pitch for transit in the quickly growing city.
Convention Center Arms Race Heats Up in Texas
Four major cities in Texas are either considering or constructing convention center upgrades.

Legalize It: Austin Eases Restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units
Accessory dwelling units, granny flats, mother-in-law units—whatever you call them, they're now legal in Austin.

Economic Benefit of Increasing Neighborhood Walkability: Is it a Myth?
Researchers from Texas A&M blog about their study of the economic benefits of walkability in neighborhoods in Austin, Texas.
Traffic Safety Sea Change Underway in Texas
Streetsblog surveys the Texas cities adopting new standards of traffic safety as official policy.

A State of Thirst
In the middle of a population boom, Texas is looking across state lines for more water. The U.S. Supreme Court said no the first time; does that mean it will say no again?
Explained: the Power and Potential of Community Land Trusts
A clear, detailed explanation of community land trusts—a growing model for retaining affordable housing and neighborhood character in the face of gentrification pressures.
Op-Ed: Austin a Shadow of its Former Self
An op-ed by David Heymann produces an elaborate, protracted metaphor of Austin as a former youthful "golden child" now showing the least attractive possible traits of middle age.
Water Wars Follow the Race to Solve the Southwest's Drought
An op-ed in the New York Times provides a firsthand account of the growing concern over water in a state that has yet to set limits on its explosive growth.
Austin Master Plan to Transform Municipal Cemeteries
Could it be that places for the dead might be a new source of urban innovation? Austin provides an example of new thinking regarding urban resting places.

How Austin Paved Paradise and Put up a Parking Lot
A local blogger takes umbrage with claims that Austin's density is causing its traffic problems. The obvious problem with that argument: Austin is 68% as dense now as it was in 1950.

Does New Urbanism Have a Racial Problem?
In two parts, NPR's City Project examines Austin's premier mixed-use urban village built on the 700-acre site of the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport which relocated in 1999. Part 2 is about racial tensions that have surfaced in the community.
Unaffordable, Growing Cities Lag on New Housing Permits
Stephen Smith follows up on an earlier report of New York City housing permits with a report on the entire metropolitan area. Included for comparison are the numbers of housing permit filings for metropolitan areas around the country.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions