Subdivisions
Rethinking the Indelible Lines of Subdivision
The subdivision process imposes rules that result in a lack flexibility, convoluted urban design, and diced up landscapes.
Revisiting Subdivision Regulations
For many decades now, most communities in the United States have grown as a series of subdivisions, built on a tried and true formula. It might be time to change the math.
Explained: Keys to Affordability in Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances
Zoning ordinances are one of the most powerful ways local governments regulate development, and they should work to implement the policies in a Comprehensive Plan Update.
Wildfire Destroys Santa Rosa Neighborhood Outside of Fire Hazard Zone
The Wine Country wildfires destroyed Coffey Park, a subdivision within the urban boundaries of the Bay Area's fifth largest city, and outside of the state's severe fire hazard zones. But the cause wasn't a mystery to wildland fire scientists.
Study: Columbus Neighborhoods Still Surprisingly Suburban
Columbus is surprisingly suburban, given that the city is the largest in population in the state of Ohio. Maybe that perception comes from the fact that it’s also the largest in size in the state?
Developer Owned Utilities Struggle to Manage the Cost of Water in Northern Arizona
The Arizona Daily Sun details the curious case of subdivision development, private utilities, and skyrocketing utility rates that linger as an effect of the last development cycle of boom and bust.
The Undeniable Urbanism of the 'Plot'
According to researchers and practitioners in the United Kingdom, there's still room for another urbanism. Chuck Wolfe digests the recent Summit on Plot-Based Urbanism from Glasgow.
Study: Planning Failed the Decaying Suburban Subdivision of Windy Ridge
A new study that examines the contributing and enabling factors that led to high foreclosure rates, neighborhood decline, and disparate impacts on low-income populations in the subdivision of Windy Ridge, near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Little Boxes on the Hillside, in China and Beyond
Nate Berg offers his take on the replicas of Western subdivisions that have come to define social status in the burgeoning economies of the Middle and Far East.
Farming the Subdivision
Agricultural spaces are increasingly being included in housing developments.
Cattle vs. Subdivisions
Arizona's long-standing open range laws allow cattle to roam freely, but the state is now reconsidering the laws as residents of the West's suburban subdivisions are growing more frustrated by encounters with roaming cattle.
The Nation's First Bicycle-Only Subdivision
A new themed subdivision is under development in South Carolina. But this is no golf course community. It's a cyclist oriented, car-free experiment called Bicycle City.
Subdivisions Built Around Agriculture
This article from GOOD wonders whether farms could become the new cornerstone amenity in suburban residential communities.
The De-Evolution of a Suburban Gated Community
Inside this gated community in the L.A. suburb of Hemet, the recession is taking a tough toll and making life difficult for the families that had moved there for quiet calm.
A Suburban Bird's Eye View
Metropolis presents a slideshow of photographs by artist Christoph Gielen, who photographs suburban developments from a helicopter.
Scars of a Subdivision That Wasn't To Be
This post from BLDGBLOG looks at the ghost of a planned but never realized subdivision on the outskirts of a Southern California exurb where only faint lines of unfinished roads remain.
A Backyard Battle: Trials of a Garden-Variety NIMBY
Nandita Godbole advocates for parks and greenspaces around Atlanta. But when faced with a struggle over keeping her own quarter-acre backyard open and free, she found she was powerless.
'Zombie Subdivisions' Eating America's Suburbs
Thousands of subdivisions across the country have been abandoned mid-development by owners and developers hit hard by the economic recession. This video takes a tour inside one of these "zombie subdivisions".
Ghost Town in Dade County
A subdivision in Florida's Dade County is left half-finished, leaving early buyers to live in a ghost town.
In A Sign of the Times, Failed Development Demolished
A stalled housing development in a Los Angeles exurb meets the wrecking ball as completing the development became too unaffordable.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Washington University
Mpact: Mobility, Community, Possibility
Lassen County Planning and Building Services
City of San Carlos
National Capital Planning Commission
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.
