Urban Development

Community Planning Groups Scrutinized for Demographic Disparities in San Diego
Older, white homeowners take up far more than an equal share of the seats at the planning table in San Diego.

A Defense of 'Out of Scale' Buildings
Beauty is often known to break the rules.

Neighborhood Homes Investment Act Offers Tax Incentives for Single-Family Rehabs
In struggling communities full of single-family homes, the cost is too high for developers to acquire and renovate blighted properties. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act would offer an incentive for investment in existing building stock.

Plan Bay Area 2050 Draft Released
A regional plan for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area is available for public comment.

Growing Anti-Development Sentiment Kills Mixed-Use Proposal in East Bay City
The city of Dublin, located adjacent to the I-580/I-680 intersection in the East Bay Area, pulled the plug on a proposed mixed-use development that would have added apartments, senior houses, restaurants, and a theater to the quickly growing city.

How Houston Achieved Lot Size Reform
Nolan Gray of George Mason University and Adam A. Millsap of the Charles Koch Institute write about a recent article they authored in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

New York MTA, Facing $16 Billion in Losses, Plans Drastic Cuts
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has faced budget crunches before, but never one like the budget crisis caused by the pandemic.

ADU Business Booming in California
The number of Californians adding Accessory Dwelling Units to residential properties has quickly grown during the pandemic, according to industry sources.

New Houston Housing Report Tells a Story of Under-Investment
A new report from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research highlights the state of housing the Houston and Harris County, and more specifically, the historically Black neighborhood of Settegast in northeast Houston.

Car-Centric Choices Shortchange the Walkability Goals of the 2010 Tysons Comp Plan
Ten years after Tysons, an unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, approved an award winning comprehensive plan, there's still work to be done to achieve its ambitious goals.

The Villages and the Dangers of Holding Too Tightly to the Past
Some parts of The Villages, Florida, the nation's largest retirement community and one of its most popular master planned communities, bear a striking resemblance to the neotraditional development favored by famous early examples of New Urbanism.

Pro-Development Coalition Forms in Connecticut
DesegregateCT is a growing coalition of groups coalescing behind ideas like Missing Middle Housing and zoning reform as a means to improved housing affordability.

Mapping the Displacement Risk of Opportunity Zones
An Atlanta case study.

Giant Mixed-Used Development Project in Nashville Levels With Coronavirus Impact
Is the density of a 6.2 acre mixed-use development too much for the coronavirus era? Fifth + Broadway developers weigh in on the future of the project.

What Is a Form-Based Code?
Form-based codes are a variety of development regulation that departs significantly from the land use control approach of most zoning codes in the United States.

David Alpert to Step Down at Greater Greater Washington
Leadership change is coming to one of the best local sources of planning news in the country, after Greater Greater Washington founder and executive director David Alpert announced plans to move on.

20 Years Later: Envision Utah's Quality Growth Strategy Deemed a Massive Success
The state of Utah created Envision Utah in the late 1990s to address growth while maintaining quality of life and protecting the environment in the state. The plan set goals for 2020, so it's time to evaluate its success.

Trump's Latest Deregulatory Itch: The National Environmental Policy Act
In a move called "one of the biggest — and most audacious — deregulatory actions of the Trump administration," President Trump yesterday announced plans to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act for federal infrastructure projects.

What Are Zoning Codes?
Local governments use zoning codes to define what can and cannot be built. While comprehensive plans and other kinds of plans lay out a vision for the future, zoning codes offer the legal tools to implement that vision.

Past Civil Unrest Sets the Table for Today's Gentrification
The story is similar in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Cincinnati, and Boston: scenes of widespread destruction—the fires, looting, and property damage of civil unrest—sow the seeds for redevelopment and gentrification.
Pagination
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.
Smith Gee Studio
City of Charlotte
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)