Urban Development

Burlington Vermont

Missing Middle Zoning Reform Advances in the Vermont Legislature

The Vermont State Senate voted unanimously to approve legislation that would reduce barriers to more compact residential development. The Vermont House of Representatives is up next.

August 3, 2020 - CNU Public Square

Accessory Dwelling Unit

The Untapped Resources to Add Hundreds of Thousands of New Housing Units

A new report explores the untapped housing opportunities for the region around New York City, and suggests planning tools for adding hundreds of thousands of housing units without building hundreds of thousands of new buildings.

August 3, 2020 - Regional Plan Association

Stone Arch Bridge

Structural Racism in the Zoning Code

A pair of articles from the Twin Cities, revealing the racist motivations of exclusionary zoning.

August 2, 2020 - Rewire

Piqua, Ohio

New Development Code in the Works for Piqua, Ohio

A southwest Ohio city is updating its development code in response to a desire in the community to better protect the city's existing communities.

August 2, 2020 - Dayton Business Journal

New York City

New York Updating its Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

Vision 2030 will update the award winning Vision 2020 New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan.

August 2, 2020 - NYC Planning

urban planners look at Biloxi plans

What Is Urban Planning?

Urban planning is the most common term used in the contemporary United States to describe the professional and academic field of planning, but understanding the implications of the term requires a discussion about the history of the word urban and the changing politics of planning.

July 31, 2020 - James Brasuell

Chicago River Industrial Area

Chicago's New Approach to Air Quality Includes Zoning Changes

Improved air quality can help achieve equitable economic growth, according to Chicago's newly announced Air Quality Agenda.

July 31, 2020 - Smart Cities Dive

Homelessness

Construction Firm Pays Penance For Bid-Rigging Scheme By Funding Tiny Home Village

A new twist on the contemporary corruption scandal.

July 30, 2020 - The Denver Post

Los Angeles, California

L.A. Officials Wrestle With Future of Projects Approved in Corruption Case

Some high-profile projects, including a 77-story tower, hang in the balance of a federal corruption case, but it's unclear whether Los Angeles can undo the approvals, whether they were achieved through bribes or not.

July 30, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Elevator Public health

Adaptive Reuse Proposal Responds to COVID-19

Designers have gone back to the drawing board to keep proposals moving through the development pipeline in light of lessons from the pandemic.

July 30, 2020 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New Orleans Aerial

Hired From Short-Term Rental Industry, New Land Use Head Will Also Lead Economic Development in NOLA

New Orleans is attempting a "major paradigm shift" in marrying land use control with economic development goals.

July 30, 2020 - The Lens

New York City

The Equity Case for Upzoning Wealthy Neighborhoods

New York City has completed a series of rezoning processes focused mostly on lower-income areas in the city. Here's what it would take to upzone wealthier parts of the city, and why the city should make it happen.

July 29, 2020 - City and State New York

Venice, Los Angeles

'Accessory Commercial Units' for a 15-Minute City

A Portland, Oregon urban planner is pitching the idea of ACUs, or accessory commercial units, as a means of repairing the effects of excluding retails uses from residential neighborhoods.

July 29, 2020 - Fast Company

Agrihood

Agrihoods: Futureproofing the Cities of America

The development and planning team behind Middlebrook Farm in Iowa explains how the master-planned community balances productive farmland with new community development.

July 28, 2020 - Jim  MacRae and Steve  Bruere

HUD Secretary

Trump Finally Follows Through on Threat to Gut Obama-Era Fair Housing Rule

It's not clear if President Trump is aware that his administration has been working to rescind the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule since 2018, but he's recently doubled down on messaging that pit suburbs against the Fair Housing Act.

July 28, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Washington D.C. Stores

A Tale of Two Real Estate Markets

Hotels, retail, and office properties, along with renters, have been ravaged by the economic downturn of the pandemic. Meanwhile home sales are booming as people with money in the bank take advantage of low interest rates to upgrade.

July 28, 2020 - The Dallas Morning News

Inwood Hudson RIver

NYC Rezoning Plan Reinstated Despite Lack of Racial Impact Analysis

The New York Appellate Division's First Department made short work of a ruling that reinstated the Inwood NYC Action Plan, which a lower court dismissed in December 2019.

July 28, 2020 - City Limits

Coronavirus in Oregon

The Great Debate: Will the Pandemic Alter the Course of Urbanism?

The geography for the coronavirus has changed, but most of the debate about the future of cities continues along many of the same lines as in the early months of the pandemic.

July 27, 2020 - James Brasuell

San Francisco, California

S.F. Rezoning Plan Paused for Equity Analysis

A plan to rezone parcels around the busy intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, called the Hub, will undergo an analysis of the potential impacts of the plan on marginalized communities.

July 27, 2020 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Georgia

Roswell, Georgia Limits Multi-Family Development Despite Affordability Concerns

The Roswell City Council discussed how limiting multi-family developments could increase housing costs, and then voted to limit multi-family development anyway.

July 27, 2020 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.