Designing & Advocating for
Enduring Places in California.

San Marcos, California. The building shown here is a brick and stone industrial mixed use building that sits on the street corner of San Elijo road. A Wine and Beer Bistro occupies the ground floor. Many walkability elements and features

Good places don’t happen by accident.

The Congress for the New Urbanism champions walkable urbanism by providing resources, education, and technical assistance to create socially just, economically robust, environmentally resilient, and people centered places.

The California Chapter of CNU is comprised of design practitioners, public servants, and citizen-advocates focused on building places people love.

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Thought leadership for the next generation of neighborhood building.

Building towns and cities people love is an art, science, and technical endeavor requiring knowledge of zoning code, development finance, and a multitude of other disciplines.

Learn what it takes to make a great neighborhood from resources compiled by our board members.

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New Commercial Strip Mall Policy Provides Great Affordable Housing Development Opportunities
New Commercial Strip Mall Policy Provides Great Affordable Housing Development Opportunities

Two tremendous new companion policies for increasing affordable housing development were signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2022. As many as two million new units of affordable housing could be built statewide because of them.

25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism
25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism

The New Urbanism is a design movement toward complete, compact, connected communities—but it is also a generator of ideas that transform the landscape. The 25 ideas listed here offer a panoramic view of the New Urbanism, one that reaches to the horizon and beyond.

Objective Design Standards Are Form-Based Codes
Objective Design Standards Are Form-Based Codes

The state of California is responding to the nation’s second highest housing costs (behind only Hawaii) with regulatory reforms that promote form-based codes along transit lines and commercial corridors.

CNU-By-Design

Draw from the extensive experience of CNU-CA’s architects, planners, and engineers as you rethink the future of your city.

Our CNU-By-Design program offers on-location design charrette planning and execution that will involve your local officials, residents, and community stakeholders.

Communities we’ve recently helped.

Our friends in the fight for good cities.