Urban Development

Growing Green: How Parks and Trees Shape Honolulu’s Future
Honolulu is expanding its urban tree canopy through community-driven park revitalization efforts, emphasizing the environmental, social, and cultural benefits of trees in creating a more resilient and equitable city.

Downtown Los Angeles on the Rise: A Promising 2025
Fueled by new developments, cultural investments, and a growing dining scene, downtown Los Angeles is poised for significant growth in 2025, despite challenges from recent wildfires and economic uncertainties.

FEMA Suspends Flood Rebuilding Standard
The rule was designed to prevent the rebuilding of government-funded projects in areas prone to repeated floods.

Cambridge Passes Zoning Reform
Developers can now build housing of up to six stories in the Massachusetts city.

A Sustainable Future for LA: Updating the OurCounty Plan
Los Angeles County is updating its Sustainability Plan to refine its vision for climate action, environmental justice, and community well-being, with residents encouraged to participate by taking the OurCounty 2025 Update Community Survey.

Public Libraries May Be More Relevant Than Ever
Libraries around the country are expanding their services in an effort to become ‘third spaces’ for the community.

Retro-silient?: America’s First “Eco-burb,” The Woodlands Turns 50
A master-planned community north of Houston offers lessons on green infrastructure and resilient design, but falls short of its founder’s lofty affordability and walkability goals.

Off-Street Parking in the Midburbs
In several New Jersey cities, eliminating parking requirements has boosted local businesses.

Traditional Retail is Hanging by a Thread. What Now for Cities?
After Kaid Benfield paints a rather grim retail outlook — where even retail bastions like San Diego are going dark — he suggests a series of actions for city leaders and planners.

Planning Communities for Thriving Children
When it comes to children's health and economic success, current trends are dismal. New research identifies how to plan communities where children can thrive. The secret? Compact, mixed-income, multimodal neighborhoods.

Sustainability Expert Becomes Dean of USC’s School of Public Policy
Chris Boone, a sustainability leader, becomes dean of the USC Price School of Public Policy, where he aims to advance interdisciplinary solutions and sustainability initiatives while building on the school’s legacy of public policy leadership.

Rethinking Suburban Development: New Trends in Creating Livable Communities
Discover new trends in suburban development focused on creating more livable, sustainable communities for future growth.

Commentary: We Need a Return to the Adaptability of Traditional Urban Form
How the rigidity of modern suburban development fails to prepare cities for the future.

Neurodivergence and the City
Researchers are starting to understand how people with conditions like autism experience cities differently — and how to design for the neurodiverse brain.

Building Resilient Communities: Insights from the LA County Cities Summit
The Los Angeles County Cities Summit convened local leaders to share strategies for advancing sustainability, addressing climate resilience, extreme heat, and other pressing environmental challenges through policy and community-driven solutions.

What’s in a Name? Investors vs. Speculators
We don’t often make a clear distinction between investors and speculators, which makes it harder to identify harmful behavior — and to find solutions for it.

Public and Private Collaboration Advances Park Development in Houston
Houston may be known to some as a concrete jungle, but its greenspaces continue to expand thanks to combined support from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.

Building Secure Yet Welcoming Public Spaces
Strategies for securing public spaces from vehicle attacks and other acts of terrorism without sacrificing accessible, vibrant urban places.

River Seine ‘Teeming’ With Life
Decades of restoration efforts are yielding positive results as dozens of species of fish return to the once-polluted waterway.

Donald Shoup Wasn't Just About Parking. He Was About The Economics Of Public Goods.
William Fulton provides a personal perspective on Prof. Shoup's life and work: “His mission was to help people understand the underlying economics of public goods and services. Parking was simply the vehicle, one might say, that he chose to do so.”
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service