NEW URBANISM promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixeduse communities composed of the

same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages. Currently, there are over 4,000 New Urbanist projects planned or under construction in the United States alone, half of which are in historic urban centers.

NEW URBANISM is the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a re-ordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods - the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism involves fixing and infilling cities, as well as the creation of compact new towns and villages.

THE PRINCIPLES OF NEW URBANISM The principles of New Urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of scales from a single building to an entire community. 1. Walkability -Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work -Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets) -Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases 2. Connectivity -Interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases walking -A hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys -High quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking pleasurable 3. Mixed-Use & Diversity -A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings -Diversity of people - of ages, income levels, cultures, and races 4. Mixed Housing A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity

5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within community. Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human spirit 6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure -Discernable center and edge -Public space at center -Importance of quality public realm; public open space designed as civic art -Contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute walk -Transect planning: Highest densities at town center; progressively less dense towards the edge. The transect is an analytical system that conceptualizes mutually reinforcing elements, creating a series of specific natural habitats and/or urban lifestyle settings. The Transect integrates environmental methodology for habitat assessment with zoning methodology for community design. The professional boundary between the natural and man-made disappears, enabling environmentalists to assess the design of the human habitat and the urbanists to support the viability of nature. This urban-to-rural transect hierarchy has appropriate building and street types for each area along the continuum.

The Transect More information on the transect 7. Increased Density -More buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable place to live. -New Urbanism design principles are applied at the full range of densities from small towns, to large cities 8. Smart Transportation -A network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and neighborhoods together -Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation 9. Sustainability -Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations -Eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems -Energy efficiency

-Less use of finite fuels -More local production -More walking, less driving 10. Quality of Life Taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living, and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------"The sum of human happiness increases because of New Urbanism" -Andres Duany -------------------------------------------------------

BENEFITS OF NEW URBANISM

1. BENEFITS TO RESIDENTS Higher quality of life; Better places to live, work, & play; Higher, more stable property values; Less traffic congestion & less driving; Healthier lifestyle with more walking, and less stress; Close proximity to main street retail & services; Close proximity to bike trails, parks, and nature; Pedestrian friendly communities offer more opportunities to get to know others in the neighborhood and town, resulting in meaningful relationships with more people, and a friendlier town; More freedom and independence to children, elderly, and the poor in being able to get to jobs, recreation, and services without the need for a car or someone to drive them; Great savings to residents and school boards in reduced busing costs from children being able to walk or bicycle to neighborhood schools; More diversity and smaller, unique shops and services with local owners who are involved in community; Big savings by driving less, and owning less cars; Less ugly, congested sprawl to deal with daily; Better sense of place and community identity with more unique architecture; More open space to enjoy that will remain open space; More efficient use of tax money with less spent on spread out utilities and roads 2. BENEFITS TO BUSINESSES Increased sales due to more foot traffic & people spending less on cars and gas; More profits due to spending less on advertising and large signs; Better lifestyle by living above shop in live-work units saves the stressful & costly commute; Economies of scale in marketing due to close proximity and cooperation with other local businesses; Smaller spaces promote small local business incubation; Lower

rents due to smaller spaces & smaller parking lots; Healthier lifestyle due to more walking and being near healthier restaurants; More community involvement from being part of community and knowing residents 3. BENEFITS TO DEVELOPERS More income potential from higher density mixed-use projects due to more leasable square footage, more sales per square foot, and higher property values and selling prices; Faster approvals in communities that have adopted smart growth principles resulting in cost / time savings; Cost savings in parking facilities in mixed-use properties due to sharing of spaces throughout the day and night, resulting in less duplication in providing parking; Less need for parking facilities due to mix of residences and commercial uses within walking distance of each other; Less impact on roads / traffic, which can result in lower impact fees; Lower cost of utilities due to compact nature of New Urbanist design; Greater acceptance by the public and less resistance from NIMBYS; Faster sell out due to greater acceptance by consumers from a wider product range resulting in wider market share 4. BENEFITS TO MUNICIPALITIES Stable, appreciating tax base; Less spent per capita on infrastructure and utilities than typical suburban development due to compact, high-density nature of projects; Increased tax base due to more buildings packed into a tighter area; Less traffic congestion due to walkability of design; Less crime and less spent on policing due to the presence of more people day and night; Less resistance from community; Better overall community image and sense of place; Less incentive to sprawl when urban core area is desirable; Easy to install transit where it's not, and improve it where it is; Greater civic involvement of population leads to better governance

WAYS TO IMPLEMENT NEW URBANISM The most effective way to implement New Urbanism is to plan for it, and write it into zoning and development codes. This directs all future development into this form. Latest version of the SmartCode New Urbanism is best planned at all levels of development: -The single building -Groups of buildings -The urban block -The neighborhood -Networks of neighborhoods -Towns -Cities -Regions Increasingly, regional planning techniques are being used to control and shape growth into compact, high-density, mixed-use neighborhoods, villages, towns, and cities. Planning new train systems (instead of more roads) delivers the best results when designed in harmony with regional land planning - known as Transit Oriented Development (TOD). At the same time, the revitalization of urban areas directs and encourages infill development back into city centers. Planning for compact growth, rather than letting it sprawl out, has the potential to greatly increase the quality of the environment. It also prevents congestion problems and the environmental degradation normally associated with growth. OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME The most important obstacle to overcome is the restrictive and incorrect zoning codes currently in force in

most municipalities. Current codes do not allow New Urbanism to be built, but do allow sprawl. Adopting a TND ordinance and/or a system of 'smart codes' allows New Urbanism to be built easily without having to rewrite existing codes. Download the latest SmartCode for free An equally important obstacle is the continuous road building and expansion taking place in every community across America. This encourages more driving and more sprawl which has a domino effect increasing traffic congestion across the region. Halting road projects and building new train systems helps reverse this problematic trend. Read more

"Only when humans are again permitted to build authentic urbanism those cities, towns, and villages that nurture us by their comforts and delights will we cease the despoiling of Nature by escaping to sprawl" -Andres Duany

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"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence." Daniel Burnham

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has" -Margaret Mead ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------

New Urbanism is "the most important collective architectural movement in the United States in the past fifty years." -New York Times

NewUrbanism.org was started in 1998, and has since grown to become a leading and well respected informational website promoting walkable urbanism, transit oriented development, trains and sustainability.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------Check out the Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism Click here ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------

A message of urgency for taking action on climate change from His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales

Sprawling land use patterns and auto-dominated transportation choices are the largest contributor to global warming and dwindling oil supplies. Major changes to transportation and land planning are the most important solutions.

The debate about Global Warming and Peak Oil are over. All the latest reports confirm Global Warming is happening now, is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and urges serious and immediate action to prevent global catastrophe. The urgent message is that we need to reduce our oil consumption by 8090% as quickly as possible. The solutions have to be as big as the problem.

Positive changes have begun! Awareness of the seriousness of the problem has spread rapidly around the planet. Global Warming

and oil supply problems are now urgent topics of daily concern all around the world. Business leaders are asking for changes and new regulation. Governments are seeking solutions and ideas. Citizens want to participate in the changes, and everyone wants a bright future for their children and grandchildren. In America alone, more than 70% of the voters, the Supreme Court, over 800 cities, more than 500 Universities, the US National Academy of Sciences, and numerous major US corporations all want change. The solutions for reducing oil consumption are all around us. The research is complete and the results are in its now time to quickly put the right solutions into widespread use across America, and around the world. At the same time, we need to stop investing in the systems that are at the root of the problem (sprawl, roads, cars, aviation).

Oil Replacements Are Not Economically Feasible Creating a replacement for oil and continuing 'business as usual' is not possible. In America alone, we currently use more than 20 million barrels of oil EVERY DAY. The US population is expected to double by 2050, which means double the energy and food consumption! Biofuels will never be able to produce more than a tiny percent of what we use today, and competes directly with food production. It is questionable if any net energy is actually produced when all the inputs of energy are added up: growing the crops (such as corn), harvesting, transporting, processing, and delivery. See Time Magazine's story "The Clean Energy Scam"

The Real Solution is to Reduce Oil Demand We need a replacement for cars. The transition away from cars can be accomplished by halting the growth of sprawl and roads, and greatly increasing the supply of trains and walkable communities connected to the trains - where people can live comfortably without dependence on a car. Walking and riding trains and bicycles are the replacement for cars. Communities need to be reconfigured to the scale and comfort of the pedestrian. Americans use 8 times more energy per person, per day than Europeans, yet Europeans actually have a higher standard of living because they are not forced to spend countless stressful hours stuck in traffic every day. Their cities are dense, walkable, and beautiful, and they have extensive, state-of-theart train systems going everywhere. Americans use 8 times more energy than Europeans because 90% of American communities are not walkable (sprawl), and we have not invested in a world-class national rail network the way Europeans have been doing for many years. We have invested our wealth in roads, cars, and sprawl all of which waste huge amounts of energy, are unsustainable, and have no future. With our new knowledge of the problems and solutions, we must now act quickly, and on a grand scale to redesign our communities and transportation systems to greatly reduce the need for driving and cars.

Our 10 solutions below help point the way for a better future.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------"We face a planetary emergency"

The urgency with which we need to act cannot be overstated. We need to adopt a crash mitigation program with the total participation of the American public like we had with WWII Victory Gardens, the technological focus of the Apollo Moon program, the scale of the US Interstate Highway program, and the urgency of the Manhattan project.

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Here is our proposal for reducing our oil use, and dealing with this emergency:

We are facing a convergence of the most serious crises in the history of the planet: > Global Warming and climate change threaten the survival of the human race > Peak Oil - World oil supplies are running out while our oil use is increasing rapidly > Energy Security - Increasing global conflicts over the remaining oil -- "It's a fight to the last drop" > Traffic congestion is rapidly paralyzing America and the rest of the world while wasting millions of gallons of gas daily > Rapidly growing sprawl is devouring prime farmlands and pristine wilderness areas, and creating the massive traffic congestion

While these situations seem impossible to solve, our 10 solutions will solve all the problems at once:

10 solutions that are feasible, sustainable, & safe:

1. A permanent moratorium on all new major road construction and expansions. Every additional dollar spent building and widening roads digs us deeper into our dangerous oil / auto addiction, and increases global warming.

2. A huge increase in funding for Amtrak, and the rapid construction of a new nationwide train network. This should connect every city, town, and neighborhood with an efficient, state-of-the-art electric train network comparable to what is currently operating all across Europe and Japan. This should be built to transport both passengers and all the cargo now moved inefficiently by trucks. Trains are by far the most energy efficient form of transportation that greatly reduces global warming, saves lives, and encourages compact, walkable communities. Read more

3. A permanent moratorium on the building of any additional sprawl. Sprawl is probably the single largest contributor to oil addiction and global warming due to it's very design (or lack of). Sprawl forces everyone to drive many miles daily for everything, which in turn requires constant road expansions, encouraging more cars and driving, and more sprawl. Its a vicious cycle consuming ever more oil, and spewing out more pollution, making global warming continually worse.

4. A major focus of federal, state, and local governments onNew Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Transit Oriented Development - the revitalization and densification of all existing cities and towns across America into walkable, mixeduse communities, with pedestrians and bicycles given top priority over automobiles, and a serious

focus on bicycles and trains as the major forms of transportation. The installation of Paris style (Velib), citywide bicycle rental programs in the 200 largest cities in America. In addition, the placement of small neighborhood schools located so children can walk or bike to them, and the provision of millions of affordable housing units within walking distance of train stations. A big part of this is the construction of LEED Certified green buildings, and the retrofitting of existing buildings to similar standards.

5. The tripling of minimum vehicle miles per gallon standards for all vehicles produced in America accomplished by a quick and complete conversion of all automobile manufacturing facilities to the building of only hybrid, solar, and fully electric vehicles. Government and institutional car purchases made each year should be switched to buying only hybrids and fully electric cars. It is estimated that the entire U.S. government purchases well over 7 million new vehicles each year - the sum total of Federal, State, & Local Government agencies, municipalities, counties, universities, the US Postal Service, highway patrol, sheriff, police and fire departments, etc. - more than enough demand to change entire assembly lines at car factories. The real solution is to stop making cars altogether by a phased retooling of the auto industry into manufacturing trains, wind turbines, and solar panels (much like during the second world war when they switched to building military equipment).

6. A moratorium on new airport construction and expansions, as well as an end to aviation subsidies.

7. A moratorium on the construction of any new coal fired or nuclear power generating plants. Contrary to industry proponents who say nuclear is a "clean energy" solution to global warming - nuclear power is far from clean. The waste it produces is the most toxic substance known to humankind, remaining deadly radioactive for many thousands of years, with no safe way to store or dispose of it, and no way of preventing it from being made into weapons.

8. The rapid construction of new solar and wind power generating capacity all across America, from large-scale installations to smaller neighborhood and roof-top units. Also, the immediate installation of new hydropower generating capacity in the form of coastal wave and tidal energy capture.

9. The installation of full roof solar panels on every building in America.

10. The installation of hundreds of acres of organic farms throughout every city and town in America. In addition to this, the planting of millions of trees across America.

More information and solutions below

WAYS TO PAY FOR THESE SOLUTIONS

-The $620 billion + spent so far on the Iraq war could have paid for a lot of this (experts predict this war will end up costing over $2 trillion!) -A portion of the $680 billion United States annual defense budget -The hundreds of billions spent annually on road construction -The hundreds of billions spent on airport expansions -The hundreds of billions spent constructing nuclear and coal fired power plants -The $300 billion each year spent subsidizing the oil industry -A new 'waste tax' imposed on waste and inefficiency -A new carbon tax on the burning of fossil fuels

"There is no more debate. We face a planetary emergency. The phrase sounds shrill but it is an accurate description of the climate crisis that we have to confront and solve." --Al Gore It is imperative that we invest in the solutions as soon as possible for a smooth transition to a sustainable future. Right now, "unfortunately, we're investing in war, not in crash projects to develop new transportation and energy sources." The real problem is that after we conclude the Iraq war spending in excess of $2 trillion, and burning up millions of barrels of oil, we will still be just as dependent on oil as before the war - nothing will have been improved with our society and our dangerous oil addiction.

What we need now more than anything is unified leadership and committed, focused, emergency action on a massive scale to save the planet before it's too late.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOLUTIONS

Global Warming Criminal: The Global Warming Denial Industry Delayed Action for More Than a Decade The Global Warming Denial Machine Exposed | New York Times on the Denial Machine

The Union of Concerned Scientists on the Denial Machine Disinformation Campaign New York Times: Science Panel Calls Global Warming 'Unequivocal' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | Read Newly Released Report

Must see movie: Crude Impact - addressing all the problems (peak oil, global warming, transportation, agriculture, etc) Bloomberg: Global Warming Could Cost World $9.6 Trillion BBC: Potential Catastrophic Costs International Herald Tribune | | | Cost Analysis

Environmental Defense | MSNBC - Interactive

Global Public Media |

Union of Concerned Scientists Washington Post |

Natural Resources Defense Council

Movie: "An Inconvenient Truth"

Fox News about "An Inconvenient Truth": "Not to be missed. It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative...your mind will be changed in a nanosecond." World Bank, Pentagon: "Global Warming Bigger Threat than Terrorism" Time Magazine cover story: "The Clean Energy Scam"

Peak Oil

Fortune Magazine: Here Comes $500 Oil Shell Oil CEO: Peak Oil Could Be Here in 7 Years Boston Globe: "The oil supply problem is a matter of national security" Military Oil Pains | US Department of Defense - "World's Largest Consumer of Oil" Video: The US Government is not at all prepared for oil supply disruptions Video: Crude Realities | Video: The Coming End of Oil | Video: Bloomberg Guardian: World Oil Peaked in 2006 - Serious Risks Scientists: "World Oil Supplies Set to Run Out Faster Than Expected" "The Energy Crisis Has Arrived" -Matthew R. Simmons, Oil Industry Investment Banker ABC News: "Real Oil Crisis" Video | Kick the Oil Habit - Video US Government Report: "Peak Oil a Serious Threat" | | Peak Oil USA | Peak Oil info

Peak Oil News

"Its time to start making other arrangements" James Howard Kunstler Richard Heinberg Peak Oil Presentation | Life After the Oil Crash Aviation - Peak Oil and The End of Aviation The End of Aviation - The New Republic "Who Killed the Electric Car" movie | Collapse of World Seafood | A Bloodbath for the Airlines

SOLUTIONS
Trains France High Speed Trains | RailTeam Europe | High Speed Trains - Japan Video: France's New Super High Speed Train - World Record Setting Fast Run TGV Super High Speed | TGV - Profitable | Trains Inc. | High Speed Train News Forbes: World's Fastest Trains | Forbes: High Speed Trains | TGV Trains - Solution to Clmate Change | Train Solution Interactive Parade Magazine: Trains A Better Way To Travel | U.S. Rail Projects Check out the new US High Speed Rail Association Video: Super Fast Trains | Video: More Fast Trains

New Urbanism & Transit Oriented Development Principles of New Urbanism | Transit Oriented Development New Study: Walkable Cities are the Solution Urbanism and Solutions - The Correa Report | Congressional TOD Testimony Congress for the New Urbanism | Reconnecting America | Rail-volution New Towns | Urban Design | NEW DEAL 2009

Car-Free Cities Green Cities, End of Oil | EcoCities | Car Free Cities | Car Free Cities book

Green Buildings US Green Building Council / LEED

Wind CNN: "Wind Farms Could Meet Energy Needs" | Global Warming Solutions Wind - A Major Solution to Global Warming & Peak Oil | Wind Energy - US Wind Energy - UK | Wind Power Inc - AES | Wind Power Inc. Urban Wind Turbines | Backyard Wind Turbines | Mini Wind Turbines Mini Wind Turbines - Pacwind

Solar Solar Power | Vote Solar | Solar Energy | Solar Energy Industry Association Solar Power Inc. - FSLR | Solar Power Inc. - SPWR | Solar Power Inc. - TSL

Ocean & Wave Wave Energy Org | Wave Energy | Wave Energy Inc. | WaveGen Inc. | MSNBC Energy From the Motion of the Ocean | Ocean Power Inc. | Renewable Energy News Wavebob Inc. | Ocean Energy Inc. | OpenHydro Inc.

People Power

People-Powered Vehicles

| Electric Bike Video | Electric Bicycles | Car-Bikes

Human Powered | More Human-Powered Vehicles | Human-Powered Challenge Pedal-Powered Taxi | Bicycles | World Bicycling

Green Transportation Electric Vehicles Electric Cars | More Electric Cars | Plug-In America | EV World | Aerorider

Films FILM: "The Community Solution: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" Order DVD FILM: "Contested Streets" Order DVD Must see free video on consumption: The Story of Stuff

Investors Investor Network on Climate Risk

More Info

Apollo Alliance | Resources | More Resources | Climate Solution Reports Step it Up.org | 1 Sky | The Alliance for Climate Protection Great Video: The Story of Stuff

Consultants Sustainability Expert Consultants

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON GLOBAL WARMING

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A RAPID & UNPRECEDENTED MOBILIZATION OF HUMANITY IS NEEDED

"It is no exaggeration to say that stabilizing the climate poses a political challenge of unprecedented scope. Needed emission reductions on the order of 80% can only be achieved through a rapid transition to clean energy technologies--and not only in the rich countries, but in the developing world as well." -World Watch Institute

"Given the magnitude and urgency of the accelerating pace of climate change, the only hope lies in a rapid and unprecedented mobilization of humanity around this issue." -Ross Gelbspan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------

"The quicker we get about the business of reducing our reliance on oil, the better we're going to be." Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State (May, 2006) - Probably the smartest thing is to stop cutting funding for Amtrak, the nation's most efficient form of transportation. And probably even smarter would be to vastly increase the budget for Amtrak so the train system can rapidly expand to allow millions of people to get around by train instead of gas-guzzling SUVs and fuel-wasting airplanes.

"We have a window of only 10 to 15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points" -Tony Blair, Prime Minister, UK (October, 2006)

"Global warming requires immediate action" - The Pentagon

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir humanitys blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical plan once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with evergrowing insistency. Daniel Burnham ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------

*Be part of the fast growing New Urbanism movement! List your firm or service here in our Marketplace Professional Services Directory... and be seen by over 140,000 people per year. List your firm now

*Looking for a professional? Need to hire an architect, urban designer, marketing specialist, or other professional? Check out our Marketplace Professional Services Directory - created to help meet the growing demand for New Urbanism Practitioners - Still Accepting Professional Listings... We have the professionals you need! Check it out

THE END OF SUBURBIA A MUST SEE MOVIE! NOW AVAILABLE on DVD! Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too the suburban way of life has become embedded in the American consciousness. Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. Order Your DVD Now! Read more about the film and the crisis

Order Your DVD Today!

Read about the Transportation Crisis in America

Check out the new Virgin Trains National TV commercial

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*NEW STUDIES: Many benefits with rail systems. Click here to read the studies

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PEAK OIL is upon us! "We're a world that lives on oil; we eat oil, and there's a global energy famine coming." says Richard Heinberg, a leading voice in the debate over the timing of peak oil. Heinberg, a professor of human ecology at New College of California, calls it "a fight for the last drop," and believes Peak Oil is already here. The signs are all around: The Chinese bid for Unocal, the war in Iraq, oil prices at record levels. The world is facing a historic change that is unprecedented in scope and depth of impact. If we don't start preparing now, Heinberg predicts economic and political chaos. While there are many ways to reduce energy consumption - from turning out lights to installing solar panels on the roof - the best way to save oil is to use less gasoline - which can be accomplished by driving smaller cars, switching to hybrid cars, and moving to a walkable city and riding trains and bicycles. New Urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, and rail transportation are all major solutions to this crisis. Energy Bulletin: Government Report Acknowledges Peak Oil Threat Newsweek: How to Live Without Oil Resource Investor: Government Report Disturbing Oil Change An Inconvenient Truth Culture Change Life After the Oil Crash ASPO Peak Oil

** Read the Government Report **

Solutions: New Urbanism | Transit Oriented Development | Trains | Smart Transportation

THE EUROPEAN DREAM by Jeremy Rifkin A must read book! The American Dream is in decline. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid, and squeezed for time. But there is an alternative: the European Dream - a more leisurely, healthy, prosperous, and sustainable way of life. Europe's lifestyle is not only desirable, argues Jeremy Rifkin, but may be crucial to sustaining prosperity in the new era. With the dawn of the European Union, Europe has become an economic superpower in its own right-its GDP now surpasses that of the United States. Europe has achieved newfound dominance not by single-mindedly driving up stock prices, expanding working hours, and pressing every household into a double-wage-earner conundrum. Instead, the New Europe relies on market networks that place cooperation above competition; promotes a new sense of citizenship that extols the well-being of the whole person and the

community rather than the dominant individual; and recognizes the necessity of deep play and leisure to create a better, more productive, and healthier workforce. Much of Europe enjoys a longer life span and greater literacy, and has less poverty and crime, less blight and sprawl, longer vacations, and shorter commutes to work than we do in the United States. When one considers what makes a people great and what constitutes a better way of life, observes Rifkin, Europe now surpasses America. Order your copy today!

THE NEW TRANSIT TOWN by Hank Dittmar & Gloria Ohland Best Practices in Transit-Oriented Development. Now available... "Transit-oriented development (TOD) seeks to maximize access to mass transit and nonmotorized transportation with centrally located rail or bus stations surrounded by relatively high-density commercial and residential development. New Urbanists and smart growth proponents have embraced the concept and interest in TOD is growing, both in the United States and around the world. The New Transit Town brings together leading experts in planning, transportation, and sustainable design -- including Scott Bernstein, Peter Calthorpe, Jim Daisa, Sharon Feigon, Ellen Greenberg, David Hoyt, Dennis Leach, and Shelley Poticha -- to examine the first generation of TOD projects and derive lessons for the next generation. It offers topic chapters that provide detailed discussion of key issues along with case studies that present an in-depth look at specific projects." Purchase book

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New Urbanism University Programs ----

Notre Dame The University of Miami *For a complete list of New Urbanism friendly university programs, click here

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------*Support for Amtrak is at an all time high in America. According to a June 7, 2003 poll in the Washington Post, there is "71 percent public support for subsidizing Amtrak at current or increased levels. Support for Amtrak is strong among all regions, ages, education levels and income groups."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------READ THE JUST-RELEASED REPORT: "Highways and Transit: Leveling the Playing Field in Federal Transportation Policy"from the Brookings Institution. "A new report released December 15 by the Brooking Institution confirms what transportation reform advocates have learned from their experience in the field, documenting that there is in fact an unlevel playing field between transit and highway projects. The report provides an excellent overview of the variations in federal policies affecting project sponsors undertaking major transit investments and what is required of sponsors of federally-assisted highway projects. It discusses the differential treatment of these projects, comparing the specific federal requirements that are applicable to decision-makers seeking to undertake major transit investments, principally those funded under the New Starts program." -Surface Transportation Policy Project ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------SHOCKING NEW REPORT: THE PENTAGON NOW SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE WILL BE DEADLY A secret report obtained by The Observer - with direct implications against sprawl and endless road building - predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority. Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change. Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change. "The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile. " Read more ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------READ THE NEW REPORT: "More Highways, More Pollution: Road-building And Air Pollution In America's Cities" from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. Pirg). The research finds that cities with the most highway capacity per capita tend to have the worst air pollution from vehicles per capita. A review of the academic literature and empirical data on road building and traffic congestion concludes that building new roads will do little to alleviate traffic congestion in the long run and likely will exacerbate already severe air pollution problems in cities across the country. Read: Light Rail Success Stories | Landscape Architecture | Transit Oriented Development ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------

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NEW REPORT: "CREATING GREAT NEIGHBORHOODS: DENSITY IN YOUR COMMUNITY" Read more

NEW STUDY: TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS ALL Read more

NATIONAL SMART GROWTH AWARDS ANNOUNCED Read more

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT GROWING IN POPULARITY Read more

SPRAWL DETRIMENTAL TO HEALTH - NEW STUDIES Read more

NEW URBANISM AND SMART GROWTH SWEEPING THE COUNTRY Read more

9 STUDIES: ROAD EXPANSION PROJECTS CREATE MORE CONGESTION Read more

"NO MORE ROADS OR SPRAWL!"... VOTERS SAY LOUD AND CLEAR Read more

WE NOW HAVE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE THAT SMART GROWTH WORKS AND REDUCES AUTO USE. Read more

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New Urbanism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Neotraditionalism" redirects here. For other uses, see Neotraditional.

Seaside, Florida

New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes walkable neighborhoods containing a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually informed many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-usestrategies. New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards that were prominent until the rise of the automobile in the mid-20th century; it encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD).[1] It is also closely related toregionalism, environmentalism and the broader concept of smart growth. The movement also includes a more pedestrian-oriented variant known asNew Pedestrianism, which has its origins in a 1929 planned community in Radburn, New Jersey.[2]

Market Street, Celebration, Florida

The organizing body for New Urbanism is the Congress for the New Urbanism, founded in 1993. Its foundational text is the Charter of the New Urbanism, which says: We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.[3] New Urbanists support regional planning for open space, context-appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in suburban sprawl. TheCharter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the re-development of brownfield land.

Contents
[hide]

1 Background 2 Defining elements 3 Examples

3.1 United States

3.1.1 University Place in Memphis 3.1.2 The Cotton District 3.1.3 Seaside 3.1.4 Stapleton 3.1.5 San Antonio 3.1.6 Mountain House 3.1.7 Mesa del Sol 3.1.8 I'On 3.1.9 Haile Plantation 3.1.10 Disney's Celebration, Florida 3.1.11 Jersey City 3.1.12 Old York Village, Chesterfield Township, New Jersey

3.2 Other countries

3.2.1 Europe 3.2.2 Americas 3.2.3 Asia 3.2.4 Africa

4 Organizations 5 Film 6 Criticisms 7 See also

o o o

7.1 Urban planners, architects and New Urbanists 7.2 Locations 7.3 Topics

8 References 9 Further reading

10 External links

Background[edit]

The Transect

Until the mid 20th century, cities were generally organized into and developed around mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. For most of human history this meant a city that was entirely walkable, although with the development of mass transit the reach of the city extended outward along transit lines, allowing for the growth of new pedestrian communities such as streetcar suburbs. But with the advent of cheap automobiles and favorable government policies, attention began to shift away from cities and towards ways of growth more focused on the needs of the car.[4]Specifically, after World War II urban planning largely centered around the use of municipal zoning ordinances to segregate residential from commercial and industrial development, and focused on the construction of low density single family detached houses as the preferred housing option for the growing middle class. The physical separation of where people lived from where they worked, shopped and frequently spend their recreational time, together with low housing density, which often drastically reduced

population density relative to historical norms, made automobiles indispensable for efficient transportation and contributed to the emergence of a culture of automobile dependency. This new system of development, with its rigorous separation of uses, arose after World War II and became known as "conventional suburban development"[5] or pejoratively as urban sprawl. The majority of U.S. citizens now live in suburban communities built in the last fifty years, and automobile use per capita has soared. Although New Urbanism as an organized movement would only arise later, a number of activists and thinkers soon began to criticize the modernistplanning techniques being put into practice. Social philosopher and historian Lewis Mumford criticized the "anti-urban" development of post-war America. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written by Jane Jacobs in the early 1960s, called for planners to reconsider the singleuse housing projects, large car-dependent thoroughfares, and segregated commercial centers that had become the "norm." Rooted in these early dissenters, New Urbanism emerged in the 1970s and 80s with the urban visions and theoretical models for the reconstruction of the "European" city proposed by architect Leon Krier, and the "pattern language" theories of Christopher Alexander. In 1991, the Local Government Commission, a private nonprofit group in Sacramento, California, invited architects Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett, Andrs Duany, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Daniel Solomon to develop a set of community principles for land use planning. Named the Ahwahnee Principles (after Yosemite National Park's Ahwahnee Hotel), the commission presented the principles to about one hundred government officials in the fall of 1991, at its first Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials. Calthorpe, Duany, Moule, Plater-Zyberk, Polyzoides, and Solomon founded the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993. The CNU has grown to more than 3,000 members, and is the leading international organization promoting New Urbanist design principles. It holds annual Congresses in various U.S. cities. New Urbanism is a broad movement that spans a number of different disciplines and geographic scales. And while the conventional approach to growth remains dominant, New Urbanist principles have become increasingly influential in the fields of planning, architecture, and public policy. [6]

Defining elements[edit]
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Prospect New Town in Longmont, Colorado, showing a mix of aggregate housing and traditional detached homes

Andrs Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, observed mixed-use streetscapes with corner shops, front porches, and a diversity of well-crafted housing while living in one of New Haven's Victorian neighborhoods. 1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at this center. 2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly 0.25 miles (1,300 ft; 0.40 km). 3. There are a variety of dwelling types usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments so that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live. 4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household. 5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, an office or craft workshop). 6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home. 7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling not more than a tenth of a mile away. 8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination. 9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.

10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room. 11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys. 12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities. 13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.

Examples[edit]
Main article: Examples of New Urbanism

United States[edit]
New Urbanism is having a growing influence on how and where metropolitan regions choose to grow. At least fourteen large-scale planning initiatives are based on the principles of linking transportation and land-use policies, and using the neighborhood as the fundamental building block of a region. [citation needed] Miami, Florida, has adopted the most ambitious New Urbanist-based zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city.[7] More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S. following New Urbanist principles are planned or under construction. Hundreds of new, small-scale, urban and suburban infill projects are under way to reestablish walkable streets and blocks. In Maryland and several other states, New Urbanist principles are an integral part of smart growth legislation. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) adopted the principles of the New Urbanism in its multi-billion dollar program to rebuild public housing projects nationwide. New Urbanists have planned and developed hundreds of projects in infill locations. Most were driven by the private sector, but many, including HUD projects, used public money.

University Place in Memphis[edit]

In 2010 University Place in Memphis became the second only U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED certified neighborhood. LEED ND (neighborhood development) standards integrates principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building and were developed through a collaboration between USGBC, Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. University Place, developed by McCormack

Baron Salazar, is a 405-unit, 30-acre, mixed-income, mixed use, multigenerational, HOPE VI grant community that revitalized the severely distressed Lamar Terrace public housing site.[8]

The Cotton District[edit]

The Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi, was the first New Urbanist development, begun in 1968 long before the New Urbanism movement was organized.[9] The District borders Mississippi State University, and consists mostly of residential rental units for college students along with restaurants, bars and retail. The Cotton District got its name because it is built in the vicinity of an old cotton mill.

Seaside[edit]
Seaside, Florida, the first fully New Urbanist town, began development in 1981 on eighty acres (324,000 m) of Florida Panhandle coastline. It was featured on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were completed, and has become internationally famous for its architecture, and the quality of its streets and public spaces.[citation needed] Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the movie The Truman Show. Lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million dollars, and some houses top $5 million.[citation needed]

Stapleton[edit]
The site of the former Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, closed in 1995, is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises. Stapleton is expected to be home to at least 30,000 residents, six schools and 2 million square feet (180,000 m) of retail. Construction began in 2001.[10][11] Northfield Stapleton, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.

San Antonio[edit]
In 1997 San Antonio, Texas, as part of a new master plan, created new regulations called the Unified Development Code (UDC), largely influenced by New Urbanism. One feature of the UDC is six unique land development patterns that can be applied to certain districts: Conservation Development, Commercial Center Development, Office or Institutional Campus Development, Commercial Retrofit Development, Tradition Neighborhood Development, Transit Oriented Development. Each district has specific standards and design regulation. The six development patterns were created to reflect existing development patterns.[12]

Mountain House[edit]
Mountain House, one of the latest New Urbanist projects in the United States, is a new town located near Tracy, California. Construction started in 2001. Mountain House will consist of 12 villages, each with its own elementary school, park, and commercial area. In addition, a future train station, transit center and bus system are planned for Mountain House.

Mesa del Sol[edit]

Mesa del Sol, New Mexicothe largest New Urbanist project in the United Stateswas designed by architect Peter Calthorpe, and is being developed by Forest City Enterprises. Mesa del Sol may take five decades to reach full build-out, at which time it should have 38,000 residential units, housing a population of 100,000; a 1,400-acre (5.7 km2) industrial office park; four town centers; an urban center; and a downtown that would provide a twin city within Albuquerque.

I'On[edit]
Located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, I'On is a traditional neighborhood development, mixed with a new urbanism styled architecture, reflecting on the building designs of the nearby downtown areas of Charleston, South Carolina. Founded on April 30, 1995, I'On was designed by the town planning firms of Dover, Kohl & Partners and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, and currently holds over 750 single family homes. Features of the community include extensive sidewalks, shared public greens and parks, trails and a grid of narrow, traffic calming streets. Most homes are required to have a front porch of not less than eight feet (2.46 m) in depth. Floor heights of 10 feet (3.1 m), raised foundations and smaller lot sizes give the community a dense, vertical feel.

Haile Plantation[edit]
Haile Plantation, Florida, is a 2,600 household (1,700 acres (6.9 km2)) development of regional impact southwest of the city of Gainesville, within Alachua County. Haile Village Center is a traditional neighborhood center within the development. It was originally started in 1978 and completed in 2007. In addition to the 2,600 homes the neighborhood consists of two merchant centers (one a New England narrow street village and the other a chain grocery strip mall). There are also two public elementary schools and an 18-hole golf course.

Disney's Celebration, Florida[edit]

In June 1996, the Walt Disney Company unveiled its 5,000 acre (20 km) town of Celebration, near Orlando, Florida. Celebration opened its downtown in October 1996, relying heavily on the experiences of Seaside, whose downtown was nearly complete. Disney shuns the label New Urbanism, calling Celebration simply a "town." Celebration's Downtown has become one of the area's most popular tourist destinations making the community a showcase for New Urbanism as a prime example of the creation of a "sense of place".[13]

Jersey City[edit]
The construction of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail in Hudson County, New Jersey has spurred transit-oriented development. In Jersey City, two projects are planned to transform brownfield sites, both of which have required remediation of toxic waste by previous owners. Bayfront, once site of a Honeywell plant is a 100 acres

(0.40 km2) site on the Hackensack River, and is nearby the planned West Campus of New Jersey City University. Canal Crossing, named for the former Morris Canal, was once partially owned by PPG Industries, and is a 117 acres (0.47 km2) site west ofLiberty State Park.

Old York Village, Chesterfield Township, New Jersey[edit]

The sparsely developed agricultural Township of Chesterfield in New Jersey covers approximately 21.61 square miles (56.0 km2) and has made farmland preservation a priority since the 1970s. Chesterfield has permanently preserved more than 7,000 acres (28 km2) of farmland through state and county programs and a township-wide transfer of development credits program that directs future growth to a designated "receiving area" known as Old York Village. Old York Village is a neo-traditional, new urbanism town on 560 acres (2.3 km2) incorporating a variety of housing types, neighborhood commercial facilities, a new elementary school, civic uses, and active and passive open space areas with preserved agricultural land surrounding the planned village. Construction began in the early 2000s and a significant percentage of the community is now complete. Old York Village was the winner of the American Planning Association National Outstanding Planning Award in 2004.[14][15][16]

Other countries[edit]
New Urbanism is closely related to the Urban village movement in Europe. They both occurred at similar times and share many of the same principles although urban villages has an emphasis on traditional city planning. In Europe many brown-field sites have been redeveloped since the 1980s following the models of the traditional city neighbourhoods rather than Modernist models. One well-publicized example is Poundbury in England, a suburban extension to the town of Dorchester, which was built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall under the overview of Prince Charles. The original masterplan was designed by Leon Krier. A report carried out after the first phase of construction found a high degree of satisfaction by residents, although the aspirations to reducecar dependency had not been successful. Rising house prices and a perceived premium have made the open market housing unaffordable for many local people.[17] The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.), formed in 2003, shares many of the same aims as the U.S.'s New Urbanists. C.E.U.'s Charter is a development of the Congress for the New Urbanism Charter revised and reorganised to relate better to European conditions. An Australian organisation, Australian Council for New Urbanism has since 2001 run conferences and events to promote New Urbanism in that country. A New Zealand Urban Design Protocol was created by the Ministry for the Environment in 2005. There are many developments around the world that follow New Urbanist principles to a greater or lesser extent:

Europe[edit]

Example of Neo-Traditionalism at Le Plessis Robinson

The new marketplace of Le Plessis-Robinson

Le Plessis-Robinson, one of the most stunning example of Neotraditionalism,[18] in the south-west of Paris this city is in the process of transforming itself, destroying old modern-block like building and replacing them by traditional buildings and houses one of the biggest world wide project with Val d'Europe.(In 2008 the city was nominated best european achritectuaral project of the european-union).[19]

Jakriborg, started in the late 1990s nearMalm

Val d'Europe, east of Paris, France. Developed by Disneyland Resort Paris, this town is a kind of European counterpart to Walt Disney World Celebration City.

Jakriborg, in Southern Sweden, is a recent example of the New Urbanist movement.

Other developments can be found in the Netherlands, at Heulebrug, part of Knokke-Heist, in Belgium, and Fonti di Matilde, Italy.

Americas[edit]

Orchid Bay, Belize, is one of the largest New Urbanist projects in Central America and the Caribbean.

McKenzie Towne is a New Urbanist development which commenced in 1995 by Carma Developers LP in Calgary.

Cornell, within the city of Markham, Ontario, was designed with walkable neighborhoods, density to support public transit, a variety of housing types and retail.[20]

New Amherst is a new urbanist development in the town of Cobourg, Ontario.

UniverCity, beside the SFU campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, British Columbia, is an award-winning sustainable community that is designed to be walkable, dense, and well connected to public transit networks.

Asia[edit]

The structure plan for Thimphu, Bhutan, follows Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, which share underlying axioms with the New Urbanism.

Africa[edit]
There are several such developments in South Africa. The most notable is Melrose Arch in Johannesburg. Triple Point is a comparable mixed-use development in East London, in Eastern Cape province. The development, announced in 2007, comprises 30 hectares. It is made up of three apartment complexes together with over 30 residential sites as well as 20,000 sq m of residential and office space. The development is valued at over R2 billion ($250 million).[21]

Organizations[edit]

Mixed use pedestrian-friendly street in Bitola,Republic of Macedonia.

The primary organization promoting the New Urbanism in the United States is the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the leading organization promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhood development, sustainable communities and healthier living conditions. CNU members promote the principles of CNU's Charter and the hallmarks of New Urbanism, including:

Livable streets arranged in compact, walkable blocks. A range of housing choices to serve people of diverse ages and income levels.

Schools, stores and other nearby destinations reachable by walking, bicycling or transit service.

An affirming, human-scaled public realm where appropriately designed buildings define and enliven streets and other public spaces.

The CNU has met annually since 1993 when they held their first general meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, with approximately 100 attendees. By 2008 the Congress was drawing 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the annual meetings. The CNU began forming local and regional chapters circa 2004 with the founding of the New England and Florida Chapters. By 2011 there were 16 official chapters and interest groups for 7 more. As of 2013, Canada hosts two full CNU Chapters, one in Ontario (CNU Ontario), and one in British Columbia (Cascadia) which also includes a portion of the north-west US states. While the CNU has international participation in Canada, sister organizations have been formed in other areas of the world including the Council for European Urbanism (CEU), the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU) and the Australian Council for the New Urbanism. By 2002 chapters of Students for the New Urbanism began appearing at universities including the Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Georgia, University of Notre Dame, and the University of Miami. In 2003, a group of younger professionals and students met at the 11th Congress in Washington, D.C. and began

developing a "Manifesto of the Next Generation of New Urbanists". The Next Generation of New Urbanists held their first major session the following year at the 12th meeting of the CNU in Chicago in 2004. The group has continued meeting annually as of 2009 with a focus on young professionals, students, new member issues, and ensuring the flow of fresh ideas and diverse viewpoints within the New Urbanism and the CNU. Spinoff projects of the Next Generation of the New Urbanists include the Living Urbanism publication first published in 2008. The CNU has spawned publications and research groups. Publications include the New Urban News and the New Town Paper. Research groups have formed independent nonprofits to research individual topics such as the Form-Based Codes Institute, The National Charrette Institute and the Center for Applied Transect Studies. In the United Kingdom New Urbanist and European urbanism principles are practised and taught by the The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. Other organisations promote New Urbanism as part of their remit, such as INTBAU, A Vision of Europe, and others. The CNU and other national organizations have also formed partnerships with like-minded groups. Organizations under the banner of Smart Growth also often work with the Congress for the New Urbanism. In addition the CNU has formed partnerships on specific projects such as working with the [United States Green Building Council] and the Natural Resources Defense Council to develop the LEED for Neighborhood Development standards, and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers to develop a Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) Design manual.

Film[edit]
The 2004 documentary The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream argues that the depletion of oil will result in the demise of the sprawl-type development.[22]New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism, a feature length 2008 documentary about urban designer Michael E. Arth, explains the principles of his New Pedestrianism, a more ecological and pedestrian-oriented version of New Urbanism.[2][23] The film also gives a brief history of New Urbanism, and chronicles the rebuilding of an inner city slum into a model of New Urbanism.[24][25]

Criticisms[edit]
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2010)
New Urbanism has drawn both praise and criticism from all parts of the political spectrum. In an interview in Reason, a right-libertarian magazine, professor Peter Gordon, a professor of Urban Planning from University of Southern California, spoke out in favor of suburbanization and criticized New Urbanism as ignoring

consumer preference and the free market claiming that cities have moved towards car-oriented development because that is what people want.[26] On the other hand, journalist Alex Marshall has decried New Urbanism as essentially a marketing scheme that repackages conventional suburban sprawl behind a faade of nostalgic imagery and empty, aspirational slogans.[27] In a 1996 article in Metropolis Magazine, Marshall denounced New Urbanism as "a grand fraud".[28] The attack continued in numerous articles, including an opinion column in the Washington Post in September of the same year,[29] and in Marshall's first book, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken[30] Critics have asserted that the effectiveness claimed for the New Urbanist solution of mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence.[31] Independent studies have supported the idea of addressing poverty through mixed-income developments,[32][33] but the argument that New Urbanism produces such diversity has been challenged from findings from one community in Canada.[34] The New Urbanist preference for "permeable" street grids has been criticised on the grounds that it gives private motor vehicles an advantage over walking, cycling and public transport. It is also argued to be less resistant to property crime than traditional suburban neighborhood conventions like cul de sacs and horseshoe loops.[35] The transport performance of some New Urbanist developments, such as Poundbury, has been disappointing, with surveys revealing high levels of car use.[17] The alternative view, termed "filtered permeability" (see Permeability (spatial and transport planning)) is that, to give pedestrians and cyclists a time and convenience advantage, they need to be separated from motor vehicles in places. A forthcoming[when?] rating system for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND, being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism, should help to quantify the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design. New Urbanist and board member of CNU, Doug Farr has taken a step further and coined Sustainable Urbanism, which combines New Urbanism and LEED-ND to create walkable, transit-served urbanism with high performance buildings and infrastructure.[citation needed] New Urbanism has been criticized for being a form of centrally planned, large-scale development, "instead of allowing the initiative for construction to be taken by the final users themselves". [36] It has been criticized for asserting universal principles of design instead of attending to local conditions. [37]

See also[edit]
Urban planners, architects and New Urbanists[edit]
Michael E. Arth Larry Beasley

Topics[edit]
Car-free movement Carsharing

Christopher Charles Benninger Peter Calthorpe Andrs Duany Leon Krier James Howard Kunstler Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Sim Van der Ryn

Community building

Crime prevention through

European Urban Renaissa EcoMobility Gentrification

International Network for

MIU (Movement for Isra Mixed-use development Naked streets

Locations[edit]
Atlantic Station, Atlanta Birkdale Village, North Carolina Carlton Landing, Oklahoma Daybreak, South Jordan, Utah Greenbelt, Maryland Issaquah Highlands, Issaquah, Washington Kentlands, Gaithersburg, Maryland National Harbor New Town, Missouri Orenco Station, Oregon (New Urbanist transit-oriented development) Portland, Oregon (New Urbanist transit-oriented development) Beacon Cove Coed Darcy Poundbury Prospect New Town, Colorado Verrado, Buckeye, Arizona Old York Village, Chesterfield Township, New Jersey

Principles of Intelligent U

Pedestrian-oriented devel Pedestrian Village

Preservation developmen Urban decay Urban Renaissance Urbanism World Urbanism Day

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ Kelbaugh, Douglas S. 2002. Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 161. 2. ^ Jump up to:
a b

Arth, Michael E. (2010). Democracy and the Common

Wealth: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests Golden Apples Media, ISBN 978-0-912467-12-2. pp. 120-139, 363-386

3. 4.

Jump up^ Charter of the New Urbanism Jump up^ Kunstler, James Howard. 1998. Home from nowhere: remaking our everyday world for the twenty-first Century. A Touchstone book. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p.28.

5.

Jump up^ David Gordon and Shayne Vipond: "Gross Density and New Urbanism: Comparing Conventional and New Urbanist Suburbs in Markham, Ontario". Journal of the American Planning Association, 19390130, Volume 71, Issue 1, 2005, pages 4154

6.

Jump up^ Cozens, Paul Michael. 2008. New Urbanism, Crime and the Suburbs: A Review of the Evidence. Urban Policy and Research. 26(4):429-444.

7. 8.

Jump up^ Miami Reforms Jump up^ Architecture Inc. Celebrates LEED-ND Certification of University Place in Memphis, Multi Housing News, May 18, 2011.

9.

Jump up^ [1] The Town Paper, Vol. 4, No. 1 December 2001/ January 2002

10. Jump up^ DSST Web site 11. Jump up^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-26-100million_x.htm USA Today 12. Jump up^ Greenburg, Ellen, 2004. Codifying New Urbanism: How to Reform Municipal Land Development Regulations. American Planning Association PAS Report Number 526 13. Jump up^ Celebration Business Alliance, Sept 2010 14. Jump up^ "Old York Village, Chesterfield Wins an American Planning Association Award for an Outstanding Project/ Program/ Tool" 15. Jump up^ "Old York Village Implementing Smart Growth" 16. Jump up^ "Master Plan Amendment: Township of Chesterfield" 17. ^ Jump up to:
a b

WATSON, G., BENTLEY, I., ROAF, S. and SMITH, P.,

2004. Learning from Poundbury, Research for the West Dorset District Council and the Duchy of Cornwall. Oxford Brookes University. 18. Jump up^ http://www.planetizen.com/node/57600 19. Jump up^ http://www.jeunesarchi.com 20. Jump up^ "Is new urbanism the answer to suburbias dying communities?". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved 2011-01-31.

21. Jump up^ "EAST LONDON GETS OWN MELROSE ARCH", eProp.co.za, 12 December 2007 22. Jump up^ http://www.endofsuburbia.com link to official website 23. Jump up^ Website about Democracy and the Common Wealth 24. Jump up^ Teri Pruden, "The New Urban Cowboy: Michael E. Arth transforms Cracktown into Historic Garden District in DeLand DeLand Magazine, Jan-Feb, 2008. Pages 8, 9. 25. Jump up^ New Urban Cowboy review in Carbusters Magazine, issue #32, Winter 2007/2008, page 26. 26. Jump up^ "Plan Obsolescence", Reason, June 1998 27. Jump up^ See, e.g., Alex Marshall, "Building New Urbanism: Less Filling, But Not So Tasty", Builder Magazine, 30 November 1999, p. ___. Print; archived on Marshall's web site,http://www.alexmarshall.org/2006/08/02/building-new-urbanism-lessfilling-but-not-so-tasty/. Retrieved 1 November 2013. 28. Jump up^ Alex Marshall, "Suburbs in Disguise", Metropolis Magazine, July 1996, p. 70, republished as "New Urbanism" in Busch, Akiko, ed., Design is ... Words, Things, People, Buildings and Places (New York:Metropolis Books/Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), p. 272; and as "Suburbs in Disguise" on Marshall's web site, http://www.alexmarshall.org/2007/08/31/suburbs-in-disguise/, retrieved 2 October 2013. 29. Jump up^ Alex Marshall, "Putting Some 'City' Back In the Suburbs", Washington (D.C.) Post, 1 September 1996, p. C1, print, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/local/longterm/library/growth/solutions/nokent.htm; retrieved 2 October 2013. 30. Jump up^ U. of Texas Press 2000. 31. Jump up^ Popkin, S. et al. (2004) A Decade of HOPE VI. The Urban Institute 32. Jump up^ Goetz, Edward G. (2003) Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America, The Urban Institute Press: Washington, DC

33. Jump up^ Chaskin, R.J., Joseph, M.L., Webber, H.S. (2007) The Theoretical Basis for Addressing Poverty Through Mixed-Income Development. Urban Affairs Review 42 (3): 369-409. 34. Jump up^ Grant, J. and K. Perrott (2009) Producing diversity in a new urbanism community. Town Planning Review 80 (3): 267-289. 35. Jump up^ "Neighbourhoods Should be Made Permeable for Walking and Cycling but not for Cars", Steve Melia, Local Transport Today, January 23, 2008 36. Jump up^ "A brief history of Peer-to-peer Urbanism", Nikos Salingaros and Federico Mena-Quintero, October 2010 37. Jump up^ Grant, J. (2006) Planning the Good Community: New Urbanism in Theory and Practice. London: Routledge

Further reading[edit]

Arth, Michael E., The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems. 2007 Online edition. Labor IX: Urbanism Link to book

Arth, Michael E. (2010). Democracy and the Common Wealth: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests Golden Apples Media, ISBN 978-0912467-12-2. pp. 120139, 363-386 Website about, and excerpts from Democracy and the Common Wealth

Bohl, Charles C. "New Urbanism in the City: Potential Applications and Implications for Distressed Inner-City Neighborhoods." Housing Policy Debate 11.4 (2000): 761-801. (http://www.botsfor.no/publikasjoner/litteratur/new%20urbanism/new%20urbani sm%20and%20the%20city%20by%20charles%20bohl.pdf)

Brooke, Steven (1995). Seaside. Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 0-88289-997-X

Calthorpe, Peter (1993). The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1878271-68-7

Calthorpe, Peter and William Fulton (2001). The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl. Washington, DC: Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-784-6

Congress for the New Urbanism (1999). Leccese, Michael; and McCormick, Kathleen (Eds.), ed. Charter of the New Urbanism. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 0-07-135553-7.

Duany, Andres; Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth; & Alminana, Robert (2003). The New Civic Art: Elements of Town Planning. New York: Rizzoli Publications. ISBN 08478-2186-2.

Duany, Andres; Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth; & Speck, Jeff (2000). Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. North Point Press. ISBN 0-86547-557-1.

Dutton, John A. (2001). New American Urbanism: Re-forming the Suburban Metropolis. Milano: Skira editore. ISBN 88-8118-741-8

El Nasser, Haya (November 14, 2005). "Miss. Wal-Marts may apply 'new urbanism' in rebuilding". USA Today.

Gallini, Jared. 2010. "Demographics and Their Relationship to the Characteristics of New Urbanism: A Preliminary Study" . Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 340.http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/340

Jacobs, Jane (1992). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-74195-X. Originally published: New York: Random House, (1961).

Katz, Peter (1994). The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community . New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-033889-2

Kunstler, James Howard (1994). Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-88825-0

Talen, Emily (2005). New Urbanism & American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-70133-3.

Tagliaventi, Gabriele (2002). New Urbanism. Florence: Alinea. ISBN 88-8125602-9.

Waugh, David. 2004 Buying New Urbanism: A Study of New Urban Characteristics that Residents Value. Applied Research Project. Texas State University. http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/22/

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The sustainability of New Urbanism: Case studies in Maryland

Dissertation Author: Erin K. Ferriter Abstract:

The objective of this dissertation is to determine if New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative to conventional neighborhood development patterns with the hypothesis that New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative. For this research, sustainability was defined as reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging the consumption of renewable resources through the physical design of an area. To test the thesis of this dissertation, New Urbanist neighborhoods in Maryland were evaluated by the author using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) standards and the sustainable neighborhood principles, as developed by the author, to establish their sustainable attributes. In theory the principles of compact, mixed-use, mixed-income, walkability, as well as accessibility by various means of mass transportation, such as those supported by New Urbanism, suggest an alternative to conventional, low-density, single-use, automobile-dependent development patterns. However, the lack of empirical evidence to support this claim fails to expose New Urbanism as a sustainable alternative to low-density, automobile-dependent developments. By assessing the sustainability of New Urbanism through the LEED-ND standards and then the twelve sustainable neighborhood principles, the author was able to contribute to the literature gap by empirically establishing a relationship between the ideas of New Urbanism and sustainability. Previous research demonstrated that conventional neighborhood development patterns are not sustainable while this research exposed that mixed-use, automobile-dependent development can be just as unsustainable. In particular, compact mixed-use, environmentally-responsive development is not enough when the neighborhood design remains automobiledependent. External connectivity is mandatory in a sustainable neighborhood and should be an essential aspect of every New Urbanist neighborhood. Therefore if New Urbanism continues to strive to be a sustainable alternative to sprawl then the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) design must become the foundation of all New Urbanism designs at the neighborhood scale. In addition, to this conclusion, several unanticipated

findings related to improving the implementation of New Urbanism at the neighborhood scale, refining the LEED-ND design criteria and the necessity of continuing research into the problem of sustainability at the neighborhood scale are discussed. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Fundamentals of New Urbanism ............................................................................................... 5 Sustainability of New Urbanism ................................................................................................ 8 The Sustainable Neighborhood Principles ................................................................................ 9 The Sustainable Neighborhood Principles and LEED-ND ............................................................... 15 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 16 Structure of the Dissertation .................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 PRINCIPLES OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD, NEW URBANISM AND SUSTAINABILITY ......................................................................................................... 19 Sprawl................................................................................................................................. ....... 28

What is Sprawl ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Consequences of Sprawl ...................................................................................................................... 29 Sustainability ............................................................................................................................ 32 Definition of Sustainability .................................................................................................................. 32 Elements of Sustainability .................................................................................................................... 34 Approaches and Perspectives of Sustainability ................................................................................... 36 Sustainability Today ............................................................................................................................ 38 New Urbanism .......................................................................................................................... 39 History of New Urbanism .................................................................................................................... 39 Fundamentals New Urbanist Neighborhoods ...................................................................................... 45 Traditional vs Transit .......................................................................................................................... 47 New Urbanism and The Transect ........................................................................................................ 52 Critiques of New Urbanism ................................................................................................................. 55

Sustainable Neighborhood Design ........................................................................................... 58 New Urbanism and the Sustainable Neighborhood Design ................................................................. 63 Achieving a Sustainable Neighborhood ............................................................................................... 65 The Next Step ............................................................................................................................ 66 vi Chapter 3 SELECTING CASE STUDIES AND EVALUATING SUSTAINABILITY ......................................................................................................... 67 Development of Methodology ................................................................................................... 68 Case Study Selection ................................................................................................................. 70 New Urbanist Neighborhoods in Maryland ......................................................................................... 71 Selection of Case Studies ..................................................................................................................... 76 Built Status and Neighborhood Type .............................................................................................. 76 Design Date ..................................................................................................................................... 78 Data Availability ............................................................................................................................. 78

Location .......................................................................................................................................... 80 Site Type ......................................................................................................................................... 80 HOPE VI Funding ........................................................................................................................... 81 Case Study Profiles ................................................................................................................... 83 King Farm ............................................................................................................................................ 83 Lakelands ............................................................................................................................................ . 89 The Towne at the Terraces ................................................................................................................... 93 Pleasant View Gardens ........................................................................................................................ 97 Synopsis of LEED-ND Guidelines ......................................................................................... 100 The Assessment Criteria ......................................................................................................... 104 Smart Location and Linkage .............................................................................................................. 104

Smart Location and Linkage Perquisites and Credits.................................................................... 105 Smart Location and Linkage Prerequisite and Credit Intentions.................................................. 106 SLL Prerequisite Intentions ...................................................................................................... 106 SLL Credits Intentions .............................................................................................................. 107 SLL Prerequisite Options and Submittals ................................................................................ 109 Smart Location and Linkage Prerequisite and Credit Options and Submittals ............................ 109 SLL Credit Options and Submittals .......................................................................................... 112 Neighborhood Pattern and Design .................................................................................................... 118 Neighborhood Pattern and Design Prerequisites and Credits ........................................................ 119 NPD Prerequisite Intentions .................................................................................................... 120 Neighborhood Pattern and Design Prerequisite and Credit Intentions ........................................ 120 NPD Credit Intentions .............................................................................................................. 121 Neighborhood Pattern and Design Prerequisite and Credit Options and Submittals .................... 124

NPD Prerequisite Options and Submittals ............................................................................... 124 NPD Credit Options and Submittals ........................................................................................ 125 Sustainable Neighborhood Principles and LEED-ND Principles ........................................ 132 The LEED-ND Assessment Process ...................................................................................... 136 Data Collection .................................................................................................................................. 137 Initial Assessment Process ................................................................................................................. 138 Revised Assessment Process .............................................................................................................. 139 SLL Credit 5 Bicycle Network ..................................................................................................... 140 NPD Credit 4 Affordable Rental Housing & NPD Credit 5 Affordable For-Sale Housing .......... 141 NPD Credit 6 Reduced Parking Footprint ..................................................................................... 142 NPD Credit 9 Transit Facilities ..................................................................................................... 142 NPD Credit 12 Access to Public Spaces ....................................................................................... 143 NPD Credit 13 Access to Active Spaces ....................................................................................... 144

NPD Credit 14 Universal Acessibility .......................................................................................... 144 vii NPD Credit 16 Local Food Production ......................................................................................... 145 The Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment ........................................................ 146 Chapter 4 EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES ......................... 147 Assessmen Results .................................................................................................................. 147 LEED-ND Assessment Results for Each Neighborhood ...................................................... 152 King Farm .......................................................................................................................................... 152 Smart Location & Linkage ............................................................................................................ 152 SLL Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................... 152 SLL Credits............................................................................................................................... 154 Neighborhood Pattern & Design ................................................................................................... 155

NPD Prerequisites.................................................................................................................... 155 NPD Credits ............................................................................................................................. 155 Lakelands ........................................................................................................................................... 162 Smart Location & Linkage ............................................................................................................ 162 SLL Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................... 162 SLL Credits............................................................................................................................... 164 Neighborhood Pattern & Design ................................................................................................... 167 NPD Prerequisites.................................................................................................................... 167 NPD Credits ............................................................................................................................. 168 The Towne at the Terraces ................................................................................................................. 172 Smart Location & Linkage ............................................................................................................ 172

SLL Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................... 173 SLL Credits............................................................................................................................... 173 Neighborhood Pattern & Design ................................................................................................... 175 NPD Prerequisites.................................................................................................................... 175 NPD Credits ............................................................................................................................. 176 Pleasant View Gardens ...................................................................................................................... 180 Smart Linkage & Location ............................................................................................................ 180 SLL Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................... 180 SLL Credits............................................................................................................................... 181 Neighborhood Pattern & Design ................................................................................................... 183 NPD Prerequisites.................................................................................................................... 184

NPD Credits ............................................................................................................................. 185 Revised LEED-ND Assessment .............................................................................................. 188 Revised LEED-ND Assessment Applied to the Sustainable Neighborhood Principles........ 188 Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment Scores ................................................................. 189 King Farm Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment Score ........................................... 194 Lakelands Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment Score ............................................ 197 The Terraces Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment Score ........................................ 201 Pleasant View Gardens Sustainable Neighborhood Principles Assessment Score ........................ 205 Sustainable Neighborhood Principles and New Urbanism ................................................... 208 Compactness ...................................................................................................................................... 209 Walkability ......................................................................................................................................... 211

Connectivity ....................................................................................................................................... 212 Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS ... ANTICIPATED AND UNANTICIPATED ............ 214 Anticipated Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 215 viii Unanticipated Conclusions .................................................................................................... 219 Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 219 Credibility of New Urbanism ............................................................................................................. 221 Beyond this dissertation .......................................................................................................... 222 Appendix A POSSIBLE MARYLAND NEW URBANIST NEIGHBORHOODS CASE STUDIES ............................................................................................................. 223 Appendix B REPRINT PERMISSION LETTERS .................................................... 229 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 231 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 TND Diagram (Calthorpe 1993, 49. Reproduced with the permission from Princeton Architectural Press 2008.) .......................................................................... 46

Figure 2 TOD Diagram (Calthorpe 1993, 45. Reproduced with the permission from Princeton Architectural Press 2008.) .......................................................................... 47 Figure 3 The Transect (Duany and Talen 2002, 248. Reproduced with the permission of Taylor and Francis 2008) ............................................................................................ 54 Figure 4 New Urbanist Neighborhoods in Maryland (Ferriter 2007) ............................... 73 Figure 5 Built Status of Maryland New Urbanist Neighborhoods (Ferriter 2007) ........... 74 Figure 6 Types of New Urbanist Neighborhoods (Ferriter 2007) .................................... 76 Figure 7 Selected Case Studies (Ferriter 2007) ................................................................ 79 Figure 8 Aerial photograph of King Farm (GoogleEarth 2007a. ) ................................... 85 Figure 9 Aerial photograph of Lakelands (Google Earth 2007b) ..................................... 90 Figure 10 Aerial photograph of The Terraces (Google Earth 2007c) ............................... 94 Figure 11 Aerial photograph of Pleasant View Gardens (Google Earth 2007d) .............. 98 x LIST OF TABLES Table 1The Sustainable Nature of the Sustainable Neighborhood Principles .................. 12

Table 2 Basic Design Elements of the TND (Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Speck 2000) and TOD (Calthorpe, The Next American Metropolis 1993) .................................................. 49 Table 3 Possible Case Studies........................................................................................... 78 Table 4 Densities for Compact Development ................................................................. 103 Table 5 SLL Prereq 1 Options ........................................................................................ 110 Table 6 SSL Prereq 2 Options ........................................................................................ 110 Table 7 SLL Prereq 3 Options ........................................................................................ 111 Table 8 SLL Prereq 4 Options ........................................................................................ 111 Table 9 SLL Prereq 5 Options ........................................................................................ 112 Table 10 SLL Prereq 6 Options ...................................................................................... 112 Table 11 SLL Credit 1 Options ....................................................................................... 113 Table 12 SLL Credit 2 Options ....................................................................................... 113 Table 13 SLL Credit 3 Options ....................................................................................... 113

Table 14 SLL Credit 3 Possible Points ........................................................................... 114 Table 15 SLL Credit 4 Options ....................................................................................... 114 Table 16 SLL Credit 4 Possible Points ........................................................................... 115 Table 17 SLL Credit 5 Options ....................................................................................... 115 Table 18 SLL Credit 6 Options ....................................................................................... 116 Table 19 SLL Credit 7 Options ....................................................................................... 116 Table 20 SLL Credit 8 Options ....................................................................................... 117 Table 21 SLL Credit 9 Options ....................................................................................... 117 Table 22 SLL Credit 10 Options ..................................................................................... 118 Table 23SLL Credit 11 Options ...................................................................................... 118 Table 24 NPD Prereq 1 Options ..................................................................................... 124 Table 25 NPD Prereq 2 Options ..................................................................................... 125 Table 26 NPD Credit 1 Options ...................................................................................... 125

Table 27 NPD Credit 1 Densities.................................................................................... 125 Table 28 NPD Credit 2 Options ...................................................................................... 126 Table 29 NPD Credit 2 Diverse Uses ............................................................................. 126 Table 30 NPD Credit 3 Options ...................................................................................... 126 Table 31 NPD Credit 3 Simpson Diversity Index Scores ............................................... 126 Table 32 NPD Credit 4 Options ...................................................................................... 127 Table 33 NPD Credit 5 Options ...................................................................................... 127 Table 34 NPD Credit 6 Options ...................................................................................... 128 Table 35 NPD Credit 7 Options ...................................................................................... 128 xi Table 36 NPD Credit 8 Options ...................................................................................... 129 Table 37 NPD Credit 8 Street Network Grid Densities .................................................. 129 Table 38 NPD Credit 9 Options ...................................................................................... 129

Table 39 NPD 10 Options ............................................................................................... 130 Table 40 NPD Credit 11 Options .................................................................................... 130 Table 41 NPD Credit 12 Options .................................................................................... 130 Table 42 NPD Credit 13 Options .................................................................................... 131 Table 43 NPD Credit 14 Options .................................................................................... 131 Table 44 NPD credit 15 Options ..................................................................................... 131 Table 45 NPD Credit 16 Options .................................................................................... 132 Table 46 Comparison of Initial and Revised Sustainability Assessments ...................... 149 Table 47 Revised Smart Location and Linkage Assessment .......................................... 150 Table 48 Revised Neighborhood Pattern and Design Assessment ................................. 151 Table 49 King Farm Prime Soils .................................................................................... 153 Table 50 King Farm Simpson Diversity Index ............................................................... 156 Table 51 King Farm Street Grid Network ...................................................................... 158

Table 52 King Farm Open and Active Spaces ................................................................ 160 Table 53 Lakelands Prime Soil Types ............................................................................ 163 Table 54 Lakelands Street Grid Network ....................................................................... 164 Table 55 Lakelands Residential Density ......................................................................... 168 Table 56 Lakelands Simpson Diversity Index ................................................................ 169 Table 57 Lakelands Open Space ..................................................................................... 171 Table 58 Street Network Grid for The Towne at the Terraces ....................................... 174 Table 59 The Towne at the Terraces Densities ............................................................... 176 Table 60 The Towne at the Terraces Simpson Diversity Index...................................... 177 Table 61 Parking at The Towne at the Terraces ............................................................. 178 Table 62 Open Spaces within The Towne at the Terraces.............................................. 179 Table 63 Pleasant View Gardens Street Grid Network .................................................. 182 Table 64 Pleasant View Gardens Densities .................................................................... 184

Table 65 Pleasant View Gardens Simpson Diversity Index ........................................... 185 Table 66 Parking within Pleasant View Gardens ........................................................... 186 Table 67 Open Spaces within Pleasant View Gardens ................................................... 187 Table 68 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle Scores .................................................... 189 Table 69 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 1 Scores ................................................. 189 Table 70Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 2 Scores .................................................. 190 Table 71 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 3 Scores ................................................. 190 Table 72 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 4 Scores ................................................. 190 Table 73 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 5 Scores ................................................. 191 Table 74Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 6 Scores .................................................. 191 Table 75 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 7 Scores ................................................. 191 Table 76 Sustainable Neighborhood Principles 8 Scores ............................................... 192 Table 77 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 9 Scores ................................................. 192

Table 78 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 10 Scores ............................................... 193 Table 79 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 11Scores ................................................ 193 xii Table 80 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle 12 Scores ............................................... 194 Table 81 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle Assessment for King Farm ................... 196 Table 82 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle Assessment of Lakelands ...................... 200 Table 83 Sustainable Principle Assessment for The Terraces ........................................ 204 Table 84 Sustainable Neighborhood Principle Assessment for Pleasant View Gardens 207 Table 85 Compactness within the Case Studies ............................................................. 210 Table 86 Walkability within the Case Studies ................................................................ 212 Table 87 Connectivity within the Case Studies .............................................................. 213 Table 88 Every New Urbanist Neighborhoods located in Maryland - regardless of historical status................................................................................................................ 224

Table 89 Every contemporary New Urbanist Neighborhoods along with the development status those highlighted in grey were eliminated due to insufficient data. .................. 225 Table 90 Development Status of the 35 contemporary New Urbanist neighborhoods ... 227 Table 91 Details of the remaining eleven New Urbanist neighborhoods ....................... 228 xiii ABSTRACT The objective of this dissertation is to determine if New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative to conventional neighborhood development patterns with the hypothesis that New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative. For this research, sustainability was defined as reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging the consumption of renewable resources through the physical design of an area. To test the thesis of this dissertation, New Urbanist neighborhoods in Maryland were evaluated by the author using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) standards and the sustainable neighborhood principles, as developed by the author, to establish their sustainable attributes. In theory the principles of compact, mixed-use, mixed-income, walkability, as well as accessibility by various means of mass transportation, such as those supported by New Urbanism, suggest an alternative to conventional, low-density, single-use, automobile-dependent development patterns. However, the lack of empirical evidence to support this claim fails to expose New Urbanism as a sustainable alternative to lowdensity, automobile-dependent developments. By assessing the sustainability of New Urbanism through the LEED-ND standards and then the twelve sustainable neighborhood principles, the author was able to contribute to the literature gap by empirically establishing a relationship between the ideas of New Urbanism and sustainability. Previous research demonstrated that conventional neighborhood development patterns are not sustainable while this research exposed that mixed-use, automobile- dependent development can be just as unsustainable. In particular, compact mixed-use, environmentally-responsive development is not enough when the neighborhood design remains automobile-dependent. External connectivity is

mandatory in a sustainable neighborhood and should be an essential aspect of every New Urbanist neighborhood. Therefore if New Urbanism continues to strive to be a sustainable alternative to sprawl then the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) design must become the foundation of all New Urbanism designs at the neighborhood scale. In addition, to this conclusion, several unanticipated findings related to improving the implementation of New Urbanism at the neighborhood scale, refining the LEED-ND design criteria and the necessity of continuing research into the problem of sustainability at the neighborhood scale are discussed. 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION The objective of this dissertation is to determine if New Urbanism produces a sustainable alternative to conventional neighborhood development patterns with the hypothesis that New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative. For this research, sustainability is defined as reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging the consumption of renewable resources through the physical design of an area. This definition is based upon the need to operationalize the idea of sustainability as a concept in order to empirically assess the sustainability of New Urbanism. The theories of New Urbanism 1 formulate a model of development that incorporates traditional elements of the neighborhood design, such as interconnected street patterns, mixed-use development and pedestrian-friendly streets, with modern neighborhood elements such as access to multiple modes of transportation and various cultural and commercial institutions. The theories of New Urbanism suggest that New Urbanist neighborhoods offer an alternative sustainable development strategy to conventional, low-density suburban development patterns or sprawl (Steuteville and Langdon 2003, 1-2 1-4). 1 The theories of New Urbanism as referenced in this dissertation are those defined by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), as well as prominent New Urbanist authors, such as but not limited to, Andres Duany, Peter Calthorpe, Peter Katz, Emily Talen and Douglas Kelbaugh as well as authors associated with the newspaper publication New Urban News.

2 To test the thesis of this dissertation, New Urbanist neighborhoods 2 in Maryland were evaluated by the author using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) standards and the twelve sustainable neighborhood principles. The sustainable neighborhood principles are based upon the authors definition of sustainability and the Ahwahnee Principles. The LEED -ND standards operationalize the twelve sustainable neighborhood principles to allow, for the first time, a quantifiable assessment of sustainability at the neighborhood scale; and more specifically for this research, a quantifiable method of assessing the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood designs. This research evolved from critiques of the dominant development paradigm of sprawl 3 and the proposed alternative development pattern to sprawl, New Urbanism. Advocates of New Urbanism, such as John Norquist (2007) the President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), suggest that New Urbanism, as applied at the neighborhood scale, is a sustainable alternative to sprawl. Typical characteristics of the development patterns of sprawl include leapfrog or scattered development, commercial strip development, low density, and large expanses of single-use development (Gillham 2 Misunderstandings related to the intent of this research can occur when the terms of social and psychological concepts are joined with ideas related to physical facets of planning such as when the terms community and neighborhood are interchanged. Community refers most often to the social aspects of a development such as neighborhood associations or groups while the neighborhood refers to the actual built environment such as roads and land use (Barton 2000, 5). The analysis and assessment of New Urbanist neighborhoods in this dissertation focused on the built or physical aspects of New Urbanism at the scale of the neighborhood rather than the community or socially constructed elements. 3 This research does not focus on sprawl per se but rather the reaction to sprawl as formulated by the theories of New Urbanism. The theories of New Urbanism provide an alternative development pattern to sprawl and the intent of this research is to determine if the theories of New Urbanism reproduce a sustainable alternative to sprawl instead of

determining solutions for improving sprawl or if New Urbanism is more sustainable than sprawl. 3 2002, 4). Sprawl is considered unsustainable due its excessive consumption of resources such as land, water, and energy because of the scattered, low-density, single-use, automobile-dependent neighborhood development patterns. The lack of conclusive evidence establishing New Urbanism as a sustainable alternative to sprawl, as represented in the conventional suburban subdivision, suggested additional research was needed to decipher the strength of the relationship between sustainability and New Urbanism. Therefore, the research of this dissertation operationalized the definition of sustainability to empirically assess the relationship between sustainability and built New Urbanism neighborhoods using the LEED-ND criteria and the sustainable neighborhood principles. However, this process turned into a more complex assessment of sustainability and New Urbanism; as a result this dissertation not only describes the research procedures and findings, but also conclusions related to improving the implementation of New Urbanism at the neighborhood scale, refining the LEED-ND design criteria as well as the necessity of continuing research into defining sustainability at the neighborhood scale. Sustainability The literature presents various definitions of sustainability. The challenge related to these numerous definitions of sustainability is that the definitions of sustainability tend to be either conceptual or quantifiable. To achieve sustainability, in any application, requires both a conceptual understanding of what sustainable means and a quantifiable way to establish how the ideas of sustainability can be met. Without a means of grounding the conceptual definitions with a mechanism for implementation, the theory or 4 design can fail to reach its potential of achieving sustainability. Likewise, defining sustainability to be operationalized at the neighborhood scale proved to be an unexpected challenge and was solved by connecting the definition of sustainability to the sustainable neighborhood principles and ultimately to the LEED-ND criteria to facilitate an empirical assessment of the sustainability of New Urbanism. A crucial step in this research was the identification of sustainable neighborhood characteristics as

well as the means to assess the sustainability of a neighborhood. The definition of sustainability used in this research stemmed from the Brundtland Commissions definition of sustainability that sustainable development is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987, 8). Furthermore, the idea of sustainability is based upon economic, social and environmental balance. For this dissertation, the focus is on the environmental elements of sustainability. The development patterns of sprawl are unsustainable due to the decreased availability of natural resources such as land, fossil fuel, and water that result from the scattered, low-density, single-use development patterns; as a result an alternative neighborhood development strategy is essential to create sustainable neighborhood designs. The simple consumption of land is not the only problem, but it is the way in which land is developed [into single-use, automobiledependent, disconnected neighborhoods] that leads to sprawls unsustainability (Cieslewicz 2002, 26). For example, between 1982 and 1997, the United States population grew by 17 percent while the land urbanized grew by 47 percent; this suggests an "inefficient usage of land" 5 according to Burchell, et al. (2005, 38). In addition, the average automobile burns 550 gallons of gasoline per year which produces approximately 8,800 pounds of CO2 annually" (Soule 2006, 244). The Natural Resources Defense Council (2007) identified emissions from automobiles as the second largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., whereby linking low-density automobile-oriented single-use development patterns as a contributor to global warming. As of 1999, sprawl development was considered the major factor causing the loss of prime agricultural land and open space whereby every hour of every day, 50 acres of prime farm land was lost to development" (Freilich 1999, 28). Fundamentals of New Urbanism Neo-traditional planning began in the early 1980s with the idea that sprawl is not the only way to develop land, and quickly became known as New Urbanism. New Urbanism was formalized in the late 1980s as an alternative response to sprawl (Grant 2006, 55). By and large, [New Urbanists] recognize[d] the inefficiency of twentieth- century suburban patterns (Grant 2006, 45). The ideas of New Urbanism are a revival of principles of building [neighborhoods] that have been virtually ignored for half a century (Bressi 1994, xxv).

At the same time, Katz (1994) asserts that these ideas are not just a nostalgic revival, but instead heavily borrow [from] traditional city planning concepts (x). The emphasis on tradition rather than nostalgia is key because nostalgia seeks security [from] past forms without inherent principles whereas tradition evolves with time and place while 6 still holding strong to certain formal, cultural, and personal principles (Calthorpe 1993, 23). The theories of New Urbanism attempt to reconnect the physically designed environment with the social environment through design standards such as street patterns that connect residential dwellings with commercial uses and allow one to easily access various elements of the neighborhood. In other words, these theories provide a choice among the sprawl dominated landscape to developers, to home buyers, as well as to urban planners that an alternative development patterns is possible (Duany 2007). These ideas attempt to create urban spaces that respect the integrity of the environment in addition to facilitating an alternative to suburban sprawl (Steuteville and Langdon 200, 20-2; Leccese and McCormick 2000, 80). The central aim of New Urbanism is to provide a healthy choice for suburban development in which children can walk to school, people know their neighbors, the elderly are not isolated when their ability to drive is lost, less time is spent commuting, homes are affordable for all, and various transportation options are available (Congress for the New Urbanism 2001). New Urbanism attempts to reintegrate traditional elements of neighborhoods with contemporary neighborhoods. The mixing of traditional and contemporary planning philosophies occurs when structured street patterns are preferred over cul-du-sacs and when pedestrian as well as the automobile or other modes of transportation are integrated into the neighborhood design rather than isolated, thus encouraging connectivity rather than isolation, and sustainability rather than environmental degradation. 7 New Urbanism is concerned with both the pieces and the whole (Calthorpe 1994, xi). As a result, the theories of New Urbanism are implemented on several scales: 1. The block, street, and building 2. The neighborhood, district, and corridor, and 3. The region: metropolis, city, and town (Leccese and McCormick 2000). The heart of New

Urbanism [is] the reassertion of fundamental urban design principles at the neighborhood scale (Leccese and McCormick 2000, 71). Furthermore, Duany and Plater-Zyberk (1994) suggest that a fundamental organizing element of New Urbanism is the neighborhood (xvii). Because of this the sustainability of New Urbanism was assessed at the neighborhood scale 4 . While the po pulation density may vary, depending on its context, each [neighborhood] offers a balanced mix of dwellings, workplaces, shops, civic buildings and parks (Duany and Plater-Zyberk 1994, xvii). In addition, according to the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), the New Urbanism reaffirms the neighborhood as the basic building block of all residential districts. Within the 10-minute walking circle, a neighborhood includes a mix of different house and apartment types. Streets make legible connections that are easy to walk as well as drive, and there are neighborhood shops, schools, and civic buildings, all within walking distance (Barnett 2000, 73). 4 Admittedly the heart of New Urbanism may the neighborhood, but to be sustainable, New Urbanism must be applied not only at the neighborhood scale, but at the regional scale. A single New Urbanist neighborhood is not enough to be a sustainable entity; rather it must be connected and intertwined with many other New Urbanist neighborhoods to establish a sustainable New Urbanist network. Nevertheless, the evolution towards a sustainable New Urbanist network begins with the neighborhood. 8 These New Urbanist neighborhood design elements suggest a sustainable development option to sprawl (Langdon 2008; Steuteville and Langdon 2003, 1-2). Sustainability of New Urbanism An inclusive literature review was conducted to gather information related to the relationship between New Urbanism and sustainability. The review found that some New Urbanism-inspired research, such as that conducted by Duany, Calthorpe and the Congress for the New Urbanism, associated the ideas of New Urbanism with those of sustainability without providing evidence to demonstrate that New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative to sprawl. For example, Cieslewicz (2002) suggested that the amount of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by the automobile could be an indicator of sustainability, whereby a low VMT translates into the reduction of the

consumption of fossil fuels through the decreased reliance on automobiles (24, 28). Though some studies have quantified a significant reduction of vehicle miles traveled in New Urbanist [neighborhoods] compared to conventional suburban [neighborhoods], the traffic pattern of New Urbanist [neighborhoods] is so superior that people do not need empirical evidence (Leccese and McCormick 2000, 86). Without empirical evidence illustrating the relationship between the ideas of sustainability and New Urbanism there is no way to determine the sustainability of New Urbanism beyond theorectical means or to establish if New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative to sprawl rather than another sprawl oriented planning theory with references to traditional archtitecture and urbanism in its design. In theory, a New Urbanist neighborhood with its connected street network, mixed-use developments, and multi-modal transportation access exhibits many of the 9 sustainable neighborhood criteria. Even though in the literature the theories of New Urbanism demonstrate qualities of sustainability, the role of the environment and sustainability in the built New Urbanist neighborhood design is ambiguous. New Urbanist literature claims to reduce environmental impacts when compared with conventional suburban developments. Steuteville and Langdon (2003), for example, claim New Urbanisms beneficial impacts on the environment include open space preservation and reduced auto emissions, energy use, and stormwater run-off based on smaller lots cover less land; a mix of uses and well-designed streets offer the opportunity to walk, which can result in less driving, petroleum use, and smog; smaller lawns and less pavement equals reduced water use and runoff pollution according to primarily theoretical studies and some legitimate studies (20 -2). A 2002 edition of the newspaper New Urban Post dedicated to New Urbanism and Environmentalism, on the other hand, suggested that the environmental footprint of New Urbanism may not be as implicitly sustainable or even incorporated into New Urbanist neighborhoods as assumed (New Urban Post 2002). Moreover, some New Urbanists have indicated that often times the environment is viewed as a non-priority when designing and developing New Urbanist neighborhoods (Miller 2005). The Sustainable Neighborhood Principles While the theories of New Urbanism suggest a

sustainable alternative to sprawl, this relationship has not been tested. This dissertation empirically assesses this relationship through the sustainable neighborhood principles. The sustainable neighborhood principles were developed from the application of the definition of sustainability to the neighborhood scale. The Ahwahnee Principles (1991), as developed 10 by Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, Stefanos Polyzoides and Judy Corbett as well as others, came closest to the authors definition of sustainability and therefore were adopted for this dissertation as the sustainable neighborhood principles. The principles of the sustainable neighborhood reflect the idea of sustainability because each principle encourages the decreased consumption of nonrenewable resources such as land and fossil fuels, the increased consumption of renewable energy resources such as sunlight, the reuse and recycling of materials, the connectivity of the built environment and the natural environment, as well as the framework for exploring alternative modes of transportation The twelve sustainable neighborhood principles are: 1. Essential activities to the daily life, such as housing, shops, work places, schools, parks and civic facilities, should all be integrated into neighborhoods designs.
Full document contains 258 pages Abstract: The objective of this dissertation is to determine if New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative to conventional neighborhood development patterns with the hypothesis that New Urbanism is a sustainable alternative. For this research, sustainability was defined as reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging the consumption of renewable resources through the physical design of an area. To test the thesis of this dissertation, New Urbanist neighborhoods in Maryland were evaluated by the author using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) standards and the sustainable neighborhood principles, as developed by the author, to establish their sustainable attributes. In theory the principles of compact, mixed-use, mixed-income, walkability, as well as accessibility by various means of mass transportation, such as those supported by New Urbanism, suggest an alternative to conventional, low-density, single-use, automobile-dependent development patterns. However, the lack of empirical evidence to support this claim fails to expose New Urbanism as a sustainable alternative to low-density, automobile-dependent developments. By assessing the sustainability of New Urbanism through the LEED-ND standards and then the twelve sustainable neighborhood principles, the author was able to contribute to the literature gap by empirically establishing a relationship between the ideas of New Urbanism and sustainability. Previous research demonstrated that conventional neighborhood development patterns are not sustainable while this research exposed that mixed-use, automobile-dependent development can be just as unsustainable. In particular, compact mixed-use, environmentally-responsive development is not enough when the neighborhood design remains automobile-dependent. External connectivity is mandatory in a sustainable neighborhood and should be an essential aspect of every New Urbanist neighborhood. Therefore if New Urbanism continues to strive to be a sustainable alternative to sprawl then the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) design must become the foundation of all New Urbanism designs at the neighborhood scale. In addition, to this

conclusion, several unanticipated findings related to improving the implementation of New Urbanism at the neighborhood scale, refining the LEED-ND design criteria and the necessity of continuing research into the problem of sustainability at the neighborhood scale are discussed.
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