“Charter of the New Urbanism”

The leading current movement directed toward combating urban sprawl and creating compact, walkable neighborhoods is a professionally based movement called the New Urbanism. It emerged in the 1980s as architects and urban designers sought ways to re-create what were felt to be the best physical qualities of traditional neighborhoods and small towns – connected street grids, local shopping, community parks, rear alleys, and front porches. Initially referred to as “Traditional Neighborhood Design,” the movement coalesced under the rubric of the New Urbanism in 1993 and organized itself as the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). Several years later, the CNU issued a charter that reaffirmed the principles articulated in the 1991 Ahwahnee Principles, which had been developed by the non-profit Local Government Commission with the help of leading members of the fledgling movement, and incorporated physical form approaches that had been developed in the first New Urbanist projects, particularly at the new town of Seaside, Florida. The Charter of the New Urbanism, reprinted here, outlines twenty-seven guiding principles for architecture and urban planning that focus on physical spatial structure. The principles are organized according to three interrelated spatial scales: metropolis, city, and town; neighborhood, district, and corridor; and block, street, and building.