New Mexico
Form-based codes voluntarily adopted by developers show how this kind of land-use regulation can offer high market adaptability while assuring a better public realm.
Better! Cities & Towns
Stan Alcorn checks up on the status of Mesa del Sol, a 12,900-acre public-private project that broke ground outside of Albuquerque in 2006, and was planned to be the largest New Urbanist development in the Southwest.
Fast Company Co.Exist
A new series of documentary films seeks to explore the value and impact of public interest projects designed using the SEED process, which is based on a belief that design can be a catalyst for positive change within the public at large.
SEEDocs.org
In New Mexico, construction will begin this summer on a fully functioning 15-square mile new town, designed "to test everything about the future of smart cities, from autonomous cars to new wireless networks," reports Emily Badger.
Fast Company
The privately funded, 190-mile grade-separated high-speed line linking Victorville, San Bernardino County and Las Vegas received clearance from the federal Surface Transportation Board provided DesertXpress implement mitigation measures..
Central Valley Business Times (Stockton
A tech firm is building a simulated city across 20 miles of New Mexico desert as testing grounds for new green technologies and renewable energy.
The City Parks blog looks at Santa Fe Railyard Park and Plaza, one of the winners of this year's Rudy Bruner Awards for Urban Excellence.
City Parks Blog
Mogro is a new for-profit company in New Mexico that is targeting neighborhoods with little access to healthy food with temperature-controlled grocery trucks.
GOOD Magazine
It's at Albuquerque's edge, it's the size of Manhattan, and it's happening, despite drought, recession and tightening state budgets. An annotation of Mesa del Sol's master plan explains how and why.
High Country News
Physicist Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute applied his talents to unraveling urban issues like population growth in a similar vein that he did earlier with biology. He found answers that explain how all cities work if enough data is supplied.
The New York Times - Magazine
The Albuquerque City Council and staff are drafting plans for Volcano Heights, Volcano Cliffs and Volcano Trails, three sites bordering Petroglyph National Monument. A simmering debate over open space conservation seems cooled by public process.
Albuquerque Journal
This piece from <em>Next American City</em> looks at pollution in small town New Mexico and how court rulings have made it hard for a local organization -- and those in other communities -- to fight environmental battles.
Next American City
A mesa in New Mexico is home to nearly 400 people, which makes up one of the largest communities of people in the U.S. living almost completely off the grid.
The New York Times
Feature
Despite geologic barriers and in the face of scientific advice, huge infrastructure projects of the 20th century brought water to the arid Southwest and fueled the growth of a megaregion.
Every year, residents in Santa Fe, New Mexico send a huge human effigy into flames. Burning with it are physical representations of the bad memories and experiences of the past year.
Los Angeles Times
The zoning code of Alamogordo, NM hasn't been revisited since April of 1950. Today, the zoning rewrite group is finally updating the code and making the switch to a form-based code in the process.
Alamogordo Daily News
Small towns in New Mexico are increasingly being used as film locations. But for some locals, the invasion of Hollywood is not worth the economic benefits.
Los Angeles Times
Officials in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas are pooling efforts to try to secure federal funding for a high speed rail link between their urban areas.
The Houston Chronicle
Two new laws in Colorado make legal the formerly prohibited act of collecting rainwater. Other states aren't so lenient.
The New York Times
Albuquerque's new "form-based codes" could offer city planners another model for denser, more pedestrian-friendly growth.
The New Mexico Independent
