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Check back for updated links to new articles addressing
smart growth and growth management issues in local communities.
June 8, 2006
Boston
Mixed-Use On Track
Northborough officials have given the green light
to a one-million sf mixed-use project that will create an
open-air shopping plaza with a Main Street-style town center
at the junction of Route 9 and 20. The project calls for
575,000 sf of retail, restaurant and entertainment space
along with 350 residential units and offices set on a 157
acres.
June 7, 2006
PREIT
In Redevelopments
NEW YORK CITY-During a presentation at the NAREIT
Investor Forum here, Ron Rubin, chairman and CEO of Philadelphia-based
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, reiterated that
redevelopment of retail properties it acquired within the
past few years is the major focus of the company’s
growth strategy.
May 28, 2006
In
Chicago, New Pay Law Is Considered for Big Stores
Chicago may become the first city in the nation
to require "big box" retailers like Wal-Mart or
Home Depot to pay employees a "living wage" of
at least $10 an hour plus $3 an hour in benefits.
May 25, 2006
Delegation
Seeks New Retail Investment
Local government and business leaders are promoting
retail opportunities along the Peachtree Corridor this week
at the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las
Vegas.
May 10, 2006
Parkers
Can Now Take Their Time
For the past month, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has
been making an unusual pitch to motorists: Buy your very
own parking meters. He doesn't mean the familiar coin-swallowing
sentinels on metal posts that have guarded America's parking
spaces for nearly a century. The Buffalo solution is a small
gadget that hangs from a vehicle's rearview mirror. Loaded
with prepaid time, it frees shoppers, couriers and business
people from having to fumble for change.
May 10, 2006
IL
Officials Unveil $500M Mixed-Use Project
ROSEMONT, IL- City officials on Tuesday announced
the city’s new $500M mixed-use development of hotels,
restaurants, entertainment and offices to be built around
the Donald E. Stephens Convention and Conference Center
and Rosemont Theatre. Called Rosemont Walk, the 60-acre
project will include 600,000 sf of retail, office and entertainment
space.
May 10, 2006
GGP
Looks Beyond Retail
The second-largest US retail REIT is not afraid
to branch out into other sectors. Chief executive officer
John Bucksbaum says General Growth Properties Inc. is looking
at its 200 properties, which total 175 million sf, for potential
residential, office and hotel development or redevelopment
opportunities.
April 20, 2006
General
Growth Plans TX Mixed Use
In the latest grandstand play for the far northern
suburbs, General Growth Properties Inc. has struck a development
agreement to build a waterfront town square on 194 acres.
The tentative plan has a hotel-conference center, retail,
entertainment and residential space--with a build-out value
sure to exceed $200 million.
April 13, 2006
West
Elm To Take Up Residence Downtown
West Elm, a furniture and home goods chain and
the second retailer to take advantage of a city financing
program, will open next spring in the historic Woodward
& Lothrop building at 10th and F streets NW.
February 18, 2006
Solutions
to Workforce Housing Problems Won't Be Found in the Market
Alone
A recent Washington Post Metro headline -- "Cut
in Planned Homes Dilutes an Urban Vision for Tysons"
-- summarized a report transcending both Tysons Corner and
urban design. The story illuminates a systemic national
problem: the challenge of creating housing, near workplaces,
that America's workers can afford despite market conditions
favoring development of housing that workers cannot afford.
February 2006
Local
Regs Hammer Affordable Housing, Study Finds
Local government regulations can add as much as
30% to the cost of a new home, according to a recent study
of development regulations in 187 cities and towns in eastern
Massachusetts. The study found that for each instance that
communities increase minimum lot sizes by one-quarter of
an acre, about 10% fewer homes are permitted.
January 30, 2006
Federal
Realty’s Berkes
With a portfolio of about 17.5 million sf of shopping
centers, Rockville, MD-based Federal Realty Investment Trust
is by no means the largest retail-asset owner in the country.
However, the firm’s executives tout the quality of
the company’s portfolio.
January 20, 2006
Home
Depot Plans 400 Units
"We are focused on suburbs that are growing,
under-penetrated urban areas and emerging small markets,"
said Frank Blake, executive vice president of business development
and corporate operations. The new formats, which include
a 60,000-sf store and smaller infill stores for urban areas,
represent a $4-billion to $8-billion opportunity, he noted.
January 19, 2006
$16M
Condo, Retail Plan on Track for Norwood Park
CHICAGO-Zitella Development Corp. plans to replace
a commercial building at 6060 N. Northwest Hwy. near the
Norwood Park Metra station and replace it with a two-building,
46-unit condominium project. The $16-million development
also would include 20,000 sf of ground-floor retail space.
January 18, 2006
Bringing
a Big-Box Store to a Tough Area of Brooklyn
Each week, about 25,000 customers find their way
by car, foot or public transportation to a five-month-old
Home Depot store at 585 DeKalb Avenue, which sits on a five-acre
site next to Public School 54, in a residential section
of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
November 30, 2005
Honey,
We Shrunk the Big Box
The victory for big-box opponents—which comes
just over a year after Wal-Mart abandoned plans to build
a 200,000 sq. ft. supercenter in the scenic northern Michigan
township—has already raised another urgent question.
What should the community do about the design and location
of the very sizeable stores that companies, according to
the new ordinance, can still build?
November 23, 2005
March
of the Malls, Not Always in Step
With a multimedia extravaganza that included magic
tricks and fashion models shooting confetti out of cannons,
the Mills Corporation broke ground last week in Chicago
on a retail, entertainment, office and hotel complex that
will fill a long-vacant block in the heart of the Loop.
November 21, 2005
National
Retailers Boxing Out Small-Town Boutiques
Along the main thoroughfare in this quaint, suburban
city, the character of the downtown business district has
begun to change. National retailers — like Sam Goody,
Starbucks and Subway — have slowly invaded storefronts
once occupied by small, independently
owned businesses.
October 28, 2005
Hurricanes
Put Target, Best Buy to the Test
There was good news and bad news waiting for Mike
Delk, a store manager for Minneapolis-based Target Corp.,
after Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast in
August. Despite the widespread devastation in Slidell, a
suburb north of New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain, Delk's
store had little damage. But Delk had no staff.
October 25, 2005
Pennsylvania
Program Lures Grocers to Inner City
SCT Xtra
A year-old program to bring fresh produce to Pennsylvania’s
inner cities is bearing fruit. The government-funded Fresh
Food Financing Initiative used a $250K grant to entice The
Fresh Grocer, a five-unit local chain, to open a store in
one such area, at Philadelphia’s Independence Plaza.
October 12, 2005
Experts:
Redevelopment is a Matter of 'Trust,' 'Economics'
By Eric Peterson
Redevelopment is a challenge, but it's a key to New Jersey's
future, and public/private partnerships are at the heart
of the matter. That was the overview of the New Jersey Alliance
Program here yesterday, an event produced by the International
Council of Shopping Centers and co-sponsored by several
other trade and business groups and government agencies.
October 12, 2005
Family
Dollar Eyes Inner Cities
By Jennifer D. Duell
With hopes of solidifying a growth vehicle, Family Dollar
Stores Inc. is making significant investments in its urban
stores through a new program dubbed the "Urban Initiative."
September 27, 2005
When
one car won't do and neither will two
By Steve Chambers and Robert Gebeloff
Along the winding roads and cul-de-sacs of suburban New
Jersey, very little is within walking distance. So as families
grow and age, they tend to add a car. Or two. Or three.
September 16, 2005
Little
Seen Side of Wal-Mart
We all know Wal-Mart as retail's proverbial 800-pound
gorilla...But do we know Wal-Mart the economic engine? The
employer of 1 million U.S. workers that rings up 5 percent
of all U.S. retail sales?
August 7, 2005
Chicago
becomes 1st city in retail testing
By Becky Yerak
Gap Inc. is launching a new chain for women 35 and older.
Best Buy Co. is trying new ways of selling gadgets to soccer
moms and young men. And Costco Wholesale Corp. is betting
that shoppers will buy a casket in anticipation of joining
that big warehouse club in the sky. But whether they're
peddling cardigans, computers or coffins, the merchants
have one thing in common: They're all using Chicago shoppers
as guinea pigs in the retail industry's equivalent of a
trial balloon.
August 1, 2005
One-Stop
Shopping
By Renee DeGross
You couldn't walk more than 10 steps at the ICSC Spring
Convention in Las Vegas, last May, without tripping over
a mixed-use project proposal. Yes, folks have been talking
about this for a couple years now. But when Simon Property
Group, the largest retail real estate owner in the country,
is talking up building apartments, office space, hotels
— and even self-storage, then you know the trend has
fully arrived.
June 13, 2005
Offices
Get New Retail Life
By Beverly Ford, Globe St. Retail
With suburban office vacancy rates at 22% and little office
demand on the horizon, local municipalities and developers
are looking for new ways to fill the more than 27 million
sf of offices now sitting unused in Boston’s suburbs.
June 1, 2005
New
Urbanism in Denver
By Terry Pristin, New York Times
Since 2002, more than 1,500 houses have sprouted on land
here that was once covered by runways from the earliest
days of jet travel, as a 7.5-square-mile mixed-use development
rises at the former Stapleton airport, about a 15-minute
drive east of downtown.
May 24, 2005
‘Very
old town’ is new vision for Bull Street
By Jeff Wilkinson, The State
The redevelopment of the 178-acre State Hospital campus
on Bull Street — a project billed as downtown Columbia’s
future — strives to be old.
May 19, 2005
Ehrlich
Vetoes 'Wal-Mart' Bill
By John Wagner, Washington Post
Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. this afternoon vetoed
legislation that would effectively have required retailing
giant Wal-Mart to spend more money on employee health benefits
or pay into a state insurance program for the poor.
May 8, 2005
Teaching
Wal-Mart New Tricks
By Tracie Rozhon, New York Times
Wal-Mart's chief financial officer, Thomas Schoewe, had
just returned from a trip to Wall Street, and was still
shaking his head about a question analysts there had directed
at him. "They kept asking me if Lee Scott didn't know
what Tom Coughlin was up to," he said.
May 5, 2005
Supersized
Supermarkets Go on a Diet
By Kathleen Kiley, Consumer Markets Insider
Faced with dwindling sales and sagging market share, many
supermarkets are making an about-face on store sizes. Instead
of trying to compete with superstores in terms of price
by building supermarkets as large as two football fields,
stores are downsizing, selling fewer products at higher
prices.
April 13, 2005
Wal-Mart
Donates $35 Million for Conservation and Will Be Partner
With Wildlife Group
By Stephanie Strom, New York Times
Wal-Mart on April 12 announced a $35 million donation over
10 years to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The
grant will go toward the acquisition of 138,000 protected
acres, which equals as much land as Wal-Mart predicts all
its numerous establishments will cover in a decade.
April 4, 2005
63,000-SF
Giant Store Moving Into Southwest DC
By Barbara Murray, Globe St. Retail
Plans have been solidified for the development of a new
63,000-sf Giant Food market in a southeast neighborhood
that has been tapped for revitalization. CHR LLC--a joint
venture involving East of the River CDC, Mid-City Urban
and William C. Smith & Co.--is behind the development
of the store, which will be part of a larger $37.5-million
endeavor featuring a total of 110,000 sf of retail space
and a conclave of single-family homes.
April 2005
The
Art of Redevelopment
By Adam Ifshin, Chain Store Age
In the past few years, the concept of urban retail development
(or re-development) has become quite fashionable. Whether
it has been taking urban retail imagery and settings to
the suburbs in the form of the lifestyle centers, or the
return of major national chain merchants to previously underserved,
multi-ethnic, inner-city and older suburban locations,
the trend is real and lasting.
March 24, 2005
Wal-Mart
Spurs Emotions
By Marita Thomas, Globe St. Retail
As big box retailers move into urban areas in the Northeast,
Wal-Mart becomes a lightening rod for complaints and concerns,
said Mia Masten, the giant retailer’s community affairs
manager, during a panel discussion entitled “Mid-Atlantic
Big Box Development –Growth and Limits” at the
International Council of Shopping Centers Idea Exchange.
March 2005
'Smart
Growth' Is Coming to Sacramento - And It's Really Stupid
By Susan McLaughlin, Sacramento Union
John Augustus Sutter had a vision. In the 19th century,
when Mexican Territoral Gov. Juan Alvarado offered Sutter
a grant of land in the great valley of California, the landscape
was considered as unremarkable as a sea of grass.
March 7, 2005
Mayor:
Wal-Mart a consumer decision
By Tom Wrobleski, Staten Island Advance
Bloomberg offers some support for big-box retailer, but
stresses that residents should choose, not pols.
March 2, 2005
Making
Downtown Retail Work
By Dees Stribling, Globe St. Retail
Attracting retailers to suburban and small-town CBDs is
both a matter of keeping focused on the details as well
as the big picture, according to panelists at the third
annual International Council of Shopping Centers West Michigan
Alliance meeting on Tuesday.
February 28, 2005
Redevelop,
Reuse, Make Retail
By Arthur Weiss, Globe St. Retail
As a densely populated state, New Jersey offers the retail
community a combination of outstanding demographics and
one of the nation’s highest per capita incomes. These
two factors put New Jersey dead center in a retailer’s
sights when considering expanding or entering into new areas.
February 10, 2005
Battling
Big Box Bashers
By Bob Howard, Globe St. Retail
What's striking about California's big box battle is not
so much what is being talked about as what isn't being discussed.
February 7, 2005
Urban
Markets: Tricky But Lucrative
By Lawrence Anderson, Globe St. Retail
After decades of urban flight, people are moving back to
the cities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in New Jersey,
where the state government’s anti-sprawl measures
have been a key factor in the heightened appeal of urban
areas. Suddenly, older blue-collar towns, especially waterfront
communities like Jersey City and Hoboken, have become crowded
with upwardly mobile young singles and families.
February 7, 2005
Small
chains can win
By Scot Meyer, Mass Market Retailers
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. proves that bigger can be better, as
it leverages its tremendous scale to cut costs and lower
prices. However, size is not the only factor that matters,
according to retail experts at A.T. Kearney, who contend
that the right strategy can let smaller retailers compete
effectively.
February 2, 2005
Luxury,
low price mix as some malls blend merchants
By Lorrie Grant, USA Today
The move reflects a growing trend in retailing to experiment
with bringing what have been mostly freestanding "big-box
merchants" — from discounters such as Target
to specialty retailers such as Best Buy or Bed Bath &
Beyond — into malls as anchors.
January 31, 2005
Bringing
Retail Home
By Jeff Gunning, Globe St. Retail
Shoppers now expect a sense of home where they shop. They
expect convenient links to their working and living environments.
They expect smart, sustainable growth. For retail developers
and designers, this has translated to a reason to de-mall
the mall.
January 26, 2005
Wal-Mart
Foes Face a Taxing Challenge
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
Opposition to Wal-Mart stores is losing ground to the reality
that the giant retailer is also a giant generator of sales
taxes.
January 14, 2005
Finessing
Florence
By Lucy May and Lisa Biank Fasig, Cincinnati Business
Courier
New vision would punch up aging Mall Road corridor to create
'new urbanism' ethos.
January 14, 2005
Retailers
Shop for Profit in Inner Cities
By Garrett Glaser, CNBC
After a holiday period just passed that has been called
"lackluster" by many analysts, these are tough
times for the nation's retailers. Yet some retail names
are finding a great new market for their products where
you'd least expect it: in the nation’s inner cities.
January 13, 2005
Inner-City
Centers A Good Investment
By Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun
The high density of inner-city neighborhoods is making them
good targets for retail development.
December 10, 2004
Analysts
Ponder Wal-Mart in NYC
By Ian Ritter, Globe St. Retail
Wal-Mart’s proposed store in a Vornado Realty Trust
development in Rego Park, Queens, could just be the beginning
of an overall push into the city by the largest retailer
in the world, industry observers say.
Fall 2004
Old
Malls Seek New Life
By Charles Gerena
Not far from the shoppers strolling through the bright corridors
of Cloverleaf Mall, there are three eerily empty buildings
filled with the echoes of times past.
November 26, 2004
Nearly
empty Lockport Mall is loser in Wal-Mart fight
By Lisa Haarlander, Buffalo News
Whether or not residents succeed in blocking a Wal-Mart
supercenter, the Lockport Mall is already a casualty of
the battle.
November 16, 2004
ICSC
Talk: Few Solving Sprawl
By Ian Ritter, Globe St. Retail
Symptoms of sprawl are inevitable and there’s not
a lot that communities can do to prevent them, said some
speakers at the International Council of Shopping Centers
Research Meeting here at the Boston Park Plaza hotel. The
speakers, on a panel called “Smart Growth: What We
Know, What We Think We Know and What We Need to Know,”
discussed the reasons for sprawl and gave a few examples
of mixed-use projects that have combated it.
November 3, 2004
A
Different Sort of Mall for a California Town
By Morris Newman, NY Times
Visitors to Victoria Gardens may have a sense of the uncanny.
Within an area that encompasses 1.3 million square feet
of retail and office space covering 12 blocks of this affluent
suburb 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, they may feel
as though they are in a city that has existed for decades.
And yet it has actually been open only for less than a week.
October 18, 2004
Big-box
stores squeeze into Big Apple
By Theresa Howard, USA Today
Big retailers known more for giant stores in suburbs are
resizing stores, reformatting layouts and remixing merchandise
to make it big in the Big Apple.
October 13, 2004
Retailers
Finding A Market Downtown
By Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
In downtown Washington, once synonymous with the demise
of urban retail, upscale men’s clothier Jos. A. Bank
has beaten internal sales predictions by 15 percent one
year after opening. Hecht’s is completing $15 million
in renovations to its Metro Center department store. And
developers are putting the final touches on a 275,000-square-foot
shopping complex with five national chains.
September 6, 2004
Real
Value In a Mall Sale Is in the Property
By Jerry Knight, Washington Post
The sale of Rouse Co. of Columbia for $12.6 billion has
made investors realize that a major regional shopping mall
is a lot like a piece of land -- valuable because they aren’t
making any more of it.
September 1, 2004
New
Wal-Mart Thrust Will Add 3M SF to Metro Portfolio
By Alex Finkelstein, GlobeSt.com
Aware that several Georgia cities already are banning new
big-box developments, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to redevelop
retail sites abandoned by other developers and tap a new
market in the city's urban pockets.
August 12, 2004
Big
Office Supply Retailers Try to Build a Smaller Box
By Claudia H. Deutsch, New York Times
In the arena of big-box office supply retailers, the race
for the small-business customer is on, and heating up. The
signs are easy to spot. Over the last few years Staples,
Office Depot and OfficeMax, the three gorillas of office
supply retailers, have all spurned warehouse-style stores
in favor of smaller outlets.
August 11, 2004
Home
Depot Project Passes Detailed Course in History
By John Holusha, New York Times
When Home Depot decided that it wanted to open a store in
Manhattan and was considering leasing a space on 23rd Street
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, one crucial question was
whether it would be allowed to have a loading dock in a
building that is part of a historic district.
August 9, 2004
Washington’s
Road to Outward Growth
By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
Far-Off Houses Are Cheap, but Drive Carries Costs: Time,
Traffic and Pollution.
August 8, 2004
Space
for Employers, Not for Homes
By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
Residents Driven Farther Out as D.C. Suburbs Lure Business
and Limit Housing.
July 8, 2004
Book
Chain Taps Underserved Neighborhoods
By Robert Shareoff, New York Times
Borders Books and Music is tapping into one of the retail
industry’s few remaining new frontiers -- underserved
urban neighborhoods -- with stores in Detroit and Chicago.
June 23, 2004
Galt's
growth may spread to city's east, north sides
By Michael Kolber, Sacramento Bee
As Galt wrestles with where the city's growth should occur,
the question has most often been put: north or east? But
last week some developers began to see that commercial and
residential growth might be possible in both directions.
May 2, 2004
Shopping
For a New SE Retail Center
By Debbi Wilgoren, Washington Post
To Barbara Savage, Skyland Shopping Center represents all
that is frustrating about the Southeast Washington neighborhood
where she has lived for 34 years.
March 29, 2004
The
Mall Comes Home
By Diane Wedner, LA Times
With land at a premium, developers are transforming old,
underperforming strip malls into attractive complexes that
blend residential and commercial use.
February 24, 2004
One
Community Finds Courage Against NIMBYs
By Mark Fisher, Washington Post
On one planet, a six-story building with apartments above
small shops and sidewalk cafes seems an inviting place to
spend an evening. In another universe, such a structure
is “excessive,” “massive,” “a
Manhattanization of Montgomery County.”
February 20, 2004
El
Cajon mall to get first custom-built Wal-Mart
Shopping Centers Today Newswire
Westfield Shoppingtown Parkway, in El Cajon, Calif., about
15 miles northeast of San Diego, will be home to the very
first custom-built Wal-Mart anchor.
February 2, 2004
The
Return of the Retailer
By David Ghitelman for Supermarket News
Supermarkets are increasingly returning to core urban area
they abandoned in the post-war exodus to the suburbs. They
are finding eager shoppers as well as unique development
challenges.
February 2, 2004
In
some towns, ‘big box’ can mean better
By Kevin Wack, Portland Press Herald
Today, Main Street is home to two hardware stores, a jewelry
store, a surplus store, a bank, a home furnishings store,
plus a smattering of restaurants and offices. All these
businesses have one thing in common: None of them try to
compete with the low-price warehouse down the road.
January 28, 2004
Report:
Wal-Mart Will Create Jobs
By Nancy Cleeland and Abigail Goldman, LA Times
A study says the net effect on Southland employment is positive.
Some economists question the findings.
January 1, 2004
Unions
Seeing New Benefits in 'Smart Growth'
By John Ritter, USA Today
The building trades unions, usually wary of "smart
growth" policies, have become convinced that those
development practices hold potential for more jobs and better
jobs than sprawl does.
December 24, 2003
What's
New Urbanism Worth?
By Alex Frangos, The Wall Street Journal
A new study reveals contradictions in what home buyers are
willing to pay to live in so-called new urbanist communities,
whose design emphasizes, among other things, shorter blocks,
sidewalks, convenient mass transit, bicycle paths and strategically
placed open spaces.
December 8, 2003
Schwarzenegger
Sells His Agenda In Malls
By Joe Matthews, LA Times
The shopping centers offer practical and symbolic advantages
to a governor enlisting public support.
October 6, 2003
Redevelopment
Program Infuses New Life Into Abandoned Sites
By Susan Stock, Lansing State Journal
Redevelopment program infuses new life into abandoned sites.
September 16, 2003
Growth
Carves Suburbs Into Odd Lots
By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
Patterns Promise Future Fights, Officials Say.
August 9, 2003
Columbia's
Next Step Splits Town
By Tim Craig, Washington Post
Some Want More Housing; Others Seek Office, Retail.
June 24, 2003
Home
Depot Tries New Looks, Formats
By Steve Matthews, Bloomberg News
Home Depot boosts sagging sales with new looks, formats.
June 22, 2003
Bringing
Home The Stores
By Margaret Webb Pressler, Washington Post Staff Writer
Why Southeast D.C. Needs the Planned Skyland
Shopping Center.
May 1, 2003
Putting
New Life Into Dead Spaces
By Lee Murphy, National Real Estate Investor
The turbulent U.S. economy has transformed retailing into
a dangerous game. Gone or wounded are such hallowed names
as Montgomery Ward, Service Merchandise and Kmart. Their
empty stores are being recycled by a new group of ascendant
merchants such as Target and Costco and Home Depot.
April 23, 2003
Makeovers
Bring New Life To Old Malls
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
One by one, shops and restaurants in the Winter Park Mall
shuttered permanently. The 2,000-space parking lot emptied.
The old Dillard’s department store struggled to stay
afloat in a 30-acre sea of concrete.
April 15, 2003
For
More Suburban Families, Affordable Housing Elusive
By David Cho, Washington Post
Chiquita Slaughter, Tonnie Badie and their four young children
have been homeless in Fairfax for nearly two years now,
even though both parents work and make what in many parts
of the country would be considered a respectable income.
April 7, 2003
Memo of Opposition
Submitted To New York Legislators
Measure would require malls to allow open access to groups.
March 9, 2003
For
a Growing Number, Region's Boom Is a Bust
By Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post
The coming of the commuter culture has brought a new prosperity
to the Fredericksburg area, but it also has created new
kinds of need. Many people who grew up in the area find
themselves priced out of a booming housing market and unable
to keep up with the cost of living. In the city and adjacent
Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, the poverty level has
risen right along with the population and the median income.
March 9, 2003
Density
Limits Only Add To Sprawl
By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
The war on sprawl around Washington has made a profound
impact on the metropolitan landscape. More than half of
the land surrounding the nation's capital is now protected
from typical suburban housing development, according to
a Washington Post review of land plans in 14 counties in
Virginia and Maryland. Restrictions in these "rural"
areas limit home builders to no more than one house for
every three acres, with several counties curtailing development
even more.
March 8, 2003
In Loudoun
County, 'Smart-Growth' Legislation Hits a Snag
By Roger K. Lewis, Washington Post
A flood of nearly 200 lawsuits filed last month by property
owners, builders and developers in western Loudoun County
illustrates dramatically how difficult it will be to implement
conservation-minded, anti-sprawl land-use policies, especially
in states such as Virginia, with strong private-property
rights.
March 8, 2003
Staging A Grand
Entrance
By Deborah K. Dietsch, Washington Post
More developers are building elaborate gateways, adding
other landscape features, to lure buyers.
February 28, 2003
Growing
Energy Worries Prompt Greener Projects
By Jim Carlton, Wall Street Journal
More and more developments are using "earth-friendly
features" such as recycled carpets and porous driveways
that let rainwater seep back into the soil.
February 4, 2003
Parents Spending
More Time Behind The Wheel
By Sue Shellenbarger, Wall Street Journal
It may not seem surprising that Leonard Sclafani, a Manhattan
attorney, recently put in a 15-hour day. He wasn’t
working the entire time, though. For about six of those
hours, he was behind the wheel, driving his kids to and
from school, a hockey game and softball practice in towns
around his Westchester County, New York, home and in Connectict.
January 23, 2003
Va.
House Panel Rejects Measures To Control Growth
By Steven Ginsberg, Washington Post
A House of Delegates subcommittee rejected two bills today
that would allow local governments more control over developers
-- action that both sides of the growth debate say virtually
assures that slow-growth measures will go nowhere during
the 2003 General Assembly session.
January 23, 2003
Board
Rejects Ban On Big-Box Retailers
By Eric M. Weiss, Washington Post
After a series of votes, parliamentary maneuvers and acrimonious
exchanges, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors
voted Tuesday to study limits on so-called big-box retail
stores.
January
14, 2003
Gainesville,
Florida Plans Mixed-Use Development
Gainesville, Florida plans to annex and develop an area
southwest of the city.
January 13, 2003
For
Urban Developers, A Hard Row to Hoe
Bethesda Row Is a Hit, but Many Builders Say That
For the Effort Required, They'll Stick With Strip Malls.
January 9, 2003
Michigan
Governor Appoints Past Governor and Attorney General to
Head Smart Growth Commission
Governor Jennifer Granholm appoints former Republican Governor
William G. Milliken and former Democratic state Attorney
General Frank Kelley to head a bi-partisan land use commission.
January 9, 2003
Kentucky
Governor Extols Small Town Revitalization Successes
Read the full-text of Governor Paul Patton's State of the
State speech. Special attention is given to the Renaissance
Kentucky program for revitalizing small towns in the state.
January 8, 2003
Virginia
Governor to Move Forward With Comprehensive Smart Growth
Plan
Read the full-text of Governor Mark Warner's State of the
State speech. He intends to complete a comprehensive urban
policy plan by the end of the year.
January 8, 2003
California
Governor Oultines Development Projects
Read the full-text of Governor Gray Davis's State of the
State speech. He outlines several school, housing and transit
projects.
January 7, 2003
Editorial
on Florida Governor's Growth Management Appointments
Governor Bush's appointment of Colleen Castille to head
the Department of Community Affairs is questioned by the
editors of the St. Petersburg Times.
January 7, 2003
North
Dakota Governor Promotes Smart Growth
Read the full-text of Governor John Hoeven's State of the
State speech. He calls on North Dakotans to support a $100
million Smart Growth investment.
January 6, 2003
Study
Requested to Explore Benefits of Smart Growth to Children's
Health
The Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee has
asked the USEPA to study the benefits of Smart Growth plans
for mixed communities on children's health.
October 2002
Neighborhood
Change in Urban America Report
The Urban Institute releases its latest report in a series
on neighborhood changes in America's cities. In addition
to the latest report, the Urban Institute has provided access
to the Neighborhood Change Database (NCBD).
October 18, 2002
State
Policy Approaches to Promote Metropolitan Economic Strategy
By Paul Kalomiris and Philip Psilos, National Governors
Association
The nation's metropolitan regions, identified by the cities
that they encompass but chiefly fueled by the suburban economies
that surround them, have taken center stage in new understandings
of innovation-based economic growth.
September 16, 2002
The
Urban Invasion of The 'Big Box'
By Neil Irwin, Washington Post
This article examines the trend of big box retail in urban
settings.
June 5, 2002
Bill
Limits Size of Retail Giants
by Eric Hartley, Prince George’s Journal
This article provides details about a Prince George’s
County (MD) Council bill that effectively makes it difficult
for big retailers to move to the county.
May 7, 2002
Change
Rules to Favor ‘Infill’
San Francisco Chronicle
This editorial calls for the support of California Senate
Bill 1636, which would create an improved regulatory climate
that would lead to new housing and businesses adjacent to
transit hubs.
May 2002
Movin’
on Down…Town
by Mike Fickes, National Real Estate Investor
This article details successful inner-city retail development
projects.
May 2002
True
Smart Growth
by Samuel R. Staley and Matthew Hisrich, Perspective on
Current Issues
This commentary from policy analysts of the Buckeye Institute
calls for alternatives to onerous smart growth policies.
April 19, 2002
Montgomery
Council Revisits Federal Plans
by Eleni Chamis, Washington Business Journal
This article details how a single county zoning amendment
would potentially block the Bethesda Row Project.
April 30, 2002
Character
Development? Jim Jeffords Wants to Run Your Local Zoning
Board
by Thomas J. Bray, Detroit News
Bray’s commentary discusses the impact that the Community
Character Act will have on local zoning processes.
December 2001
Reinventing
the Suburbs One Greyfield at a Time
New Urban News
This article discusses the Congress for New Urbanism’s
findings about greyfield redevelopment.
March 31, 2001
Lawmakers
Take Aim at Car-Choked Driveways
David Cho, Washington Post
This article details proposals in Fairfax County, Virginia
and Montgomery County, Maryland to curtail unsightly parking
habits of county residents.
February 2001
Big-Box
Food Fights
William Fulton, Governing Magazine
Fulton discusses how labor unions target big retailers using
local government land use approval processes.
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