Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) | Affordable Housing | Architectural Review | Design | Design Guidelines | Development Standards | Economic Devlopment | Form-Based Codes | Housing | Human Scale | Lean Urbanism | Missing Middle | Neighborhood | Oxnard Planning | Placemaking | Planning | Roy's Blog | Traditional Neighborhood Development | Walkability | Zoning

Gentle density: Making neighborhoods transit-ready

ByRoy

A recently built accessory dwelling in a new urban subdivision in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Source: Mission Heights development. ROBERT STEUTEVILLE    AUG. 30, 2018 Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a rapidly growing city—the largest in Northwest Arkansas, a region with major corporate headquarters including Walmart, and a major research university in the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is a low-density city…

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Save the Suburbs with Pattern Zones

ByRoy

Cities can make middle-scaled buildings the most economical development program. by Matthew Petty Pattern-book permitting is as easy as 1-2-3. Credit: Matthew Petty, Infill Group, and Matthew Hoffman, Miller Boskus Lack The last decade has been punctuated with celebratory stories of once-again active downtowns and town centers. Many places seem to have cracked a once-secret…

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Housing and Oxnard

ByRoy

Oxnard has a severe housing shortage. Earlier this year SB 827 attempted to help communities build more housing. If the direction of SB 827 is correct the “fixes” relate mostly to zoning that incentives sprawl and makes it almost impossible to build in city cores. I will not go into the failure of SB 827…

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‘Troubling’ Findings on Who Speaks Up About Housing Development

ByRoy

The skyline of Worcester, Massachusetts after sunset in 2017. SHUTTERSTOCK By Bill Lucia   AUGUST 22, 2018 New research highlights concerns that local officials are hearing a narrow subset of views at public meetings. For local government officials who consider public comments when making decisions about housing policies, an academic paper released earlier this year offers a cautionary…

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The Issue for Boomers Won’t be ‘Aging in Place’

ByRoy

The real question will be, ‘How do I get out of this place?’ LLOYD ALTER   August 13, 2018, 12:58 p.m.    You can only do this for so long. (Photo: Mick Tinbergen via Wikipedia) The oldest baby boomers have just turned 70, and most can drive to their birthday parties. They’re being followed by 70…

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Barcelona’s Superblocks: Change the Grid, Change your Neighborhood

ByRoy

Over two years ago, Barcelona set the transportation world aflutter when it announced it would be attempting to reinvent parts of its city by developing a Superblock system by transforming targeted street grids to prioritize people over cars. On selected small street networks large parts of intersections and roadways would be taken back for parks…

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From Vision to Policy, Making New Urbanism Work

ByRoy

“Brilliant podcast on placemaking, public policy, planning departments and the public. I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough.” Editor.   JULY 26, 2018   BY STRONG TOWNS This is our sixth dispatch from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), which took place in Savannah, Georgia in May. Chuck Marohn attended CNU and hosted a series of in-depth podcast conversations…