The New Urbanism calls for a different approach to just about every aspect of land planning and real estate-- blocks and street networks, building design, financing, transportation, retail, employment centers, civic institutions, zoning and codes, inner city revitalization, and even the marketing of homes.

Properly planned and visualized, large-scale developments can be successfully constructed, whether as master planned communities, planned unit developments, or new towns. Fundamentals of Land Development provides an in-depth approach to the design, planning, and development of large land areas into comprehensively designed communities. This book provides in-depth discussions of the full range of development tasks involved in any large development project, from site and land use selection, market analysis, preparing the land use plan and impact statements, to getting approval from the municipality and community, permitting and approval, scheduling and cost management, and the basics of engineering systems and design. Developers and other stake-holders will find guidance on such issues as: • How real-world development is driven by profits, and how team members can maximize profits while developing creatively and responsibly • Site selection and acquisition • Entering the growing business of retirement (active adult) community development Illustrated with real-world case studies drawn from the authors own experience, Fundamentals of Land Development is a practical manual for developers looking to improve the profitability of their projects and gain a better understanding of what all team members undertake in a project of this size and complexity.

New Urbanism, a movement devoted to building walkable, socially diversity cities, has garnered some successes and some failures over the past several decades. A Research Agenda for New Urbanism is a forward-looking book composed of chapters by leading scholars of New Urbanism. Authors focus on multiple topics, including affordability, transportation, social life and retail to highlight the areas of research that are most important for the future of the field. The book summarizes what we know and what we need to know to provide a research agenda that will have the greatest promise and most positive impact on building the best possible human habitat—which is the aim of New Urbanism.

Well-grounded in the history and theory of Anglo-American urbanism, this illustrated textbook sets out objectives, policies and design principles for planning new communities and redeveloping existing urban neighborhoods. Drawing from their extensive experience, the authors explain how better plans (and consequently better places) can be created by applying the three-dimensional principles of urban design and physical place-making to planning problems. Design First uses case studies from the authors’ own professional projects to demonstrate how theory can be turned into effective practice, using concepts of traditional urban form to resolve contemporary planning and design issues in American communities. The book is aimed at architects, planners, developers, planning commissioners, elected officials and citizens -- and, importantly, students of architecture and planning -- with the objective of reintegrating three-dimensional design firmly back into planning practice.

The volume encapsulates and engages the dominant history of American suburbia, brings the work of prominent theorists of culture and science into the investigation of urban and suburban development, and broadens the focus of urban studies to the metropolitan region. It will be of particular interest to scholars of urban and suburban development, material culture, and professions, but is accessible enough for use in sociology, geography, planning, and urban and suburban studies courses.

Is the doomsday scenario inevitable? With our increasingly diminishing natural habitat and other natural resources, it seems that we are headed in that direction. After centuries of patchwork land planning, out-of-scale development and cookbook methods, it is clear that we need a better way. Authors Silberstein and Maser explore a different scenario in Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development. The authors review the foundations of current land use practices from historical, constitutional, economic, ecological, and societal perspectives. They analyze the results of these practices and suggest alternative methods for guiding, directing, and controlling the ways in which we modify the landscape. They make the case that we-as humans-have the capacity for community with all life and can ultimately embrace the notion that individual well-being is wrapped up in the well-being of the whole, and that social change can occur before major disasters require it. This is the first book to incorporate land-use planning with sustainability. The authors offer a perspective that opens a range of possibilities for changing current methods. They tackle the difficult dilemma of creating consensus among people-tapping the powers of mind, intuition, and experience in developing a sustainable community. Using sustainability as a framework, Silberstein and Maser present the underlying concepts of sustainable land-use planning. With Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development, you will discover an array of ideas for modifying conventional planning for and regulation of the development of land.

This revised edition continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to the policies and practices of planning. Discussing land use, urban planning and environmental protection policies, the text explains the nature of the planning process.

Written by pioneering attorneys in the emerging fields of urbanism and green building, A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Planners, Developers and Architects offers you practical solutions for legal issues you may face in planning, zoning, developing, and operating such communities. Find information on legal issues related to urban form, legal mechanisms and ways to incorporate good urban design into local land regulation, overcoming impediments to sound urban design practice, and state and Federal issues related to the legal issues of urban design and planning.

What is a livable community? How do you design and develop one? What does government at all levels need to do to support and nuture the cause of livable communities? Using a blend of theory and practice, experts in the field look at evidence from international, state and local perspectives to explore what is meant by the term "livable communities". Chapters examine the various influencing factors such as the effect and importance of transportation options/alternatives to the elderly, the significance of walkability as a factor in developing a livable and healthy community, the importance of good open space providing for human activity and health, restorative benefits, the importance of coordinated land use and transportation planning, and the relationship between livability and quality of life. While much of the discussion of this topic is usually theoretical and abstract, Wagner and Caves use case studies from North America, Brazil and the United Kingdom to provide substantive examples of initiatives implemented across the world. This book fills an important gap in the literature on livable communities and at the same time assists policy officials, professionals and academics in their quest to develop livable communities.