Report on New Urbanism Conference Craig Maraschky reported on the New Urbanism Conference held in Denver on April 30 to May 3. The amount of land being consumed for development is greater than has been so in the past for the same number of people. Due to migration outward, not population increase. The same amount of energy committed to the Civil Rights Movement or the Environmental Movement is needed to change patterns of development. There is a lot of inertia in the system that has to be overcome.
Traditional neighborhoods have less impact on municipal services.
One suggestion was to lower fees on this type of development in order to encourage it. Builders do not want to re-write a city's or county's development design in order to do more traditional development design. Local municipalities need to get ready in advance of such proposals. Getting ready could encourage more developers to try innovative designs. Centex Homes, which one of the largest, nation-wide builders is now designing and building development using traditional neighborhood design.