New Urbanism - Criticisms

Criticisms

New Urbanism has drawn both praise and criticism from all quarters of the political spectrum. In an interview in Reason, a libertarian magazine, professor Peter Gordon, a professor of Urban Planning from University of Southern California, spoke out in favor of suburbanization and criticized New Urbanism as ignoring consumer preference and the free market, claiming that cities have moved towards car-oriented development because that is what people want. However, some could say that Disney's Celebration, Florida, is an example of a private company responding to the market for urban-oriented development.

Critics claim that the effectiveness of the New Urbanist solution of mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence. However, numerous studies by independent think tanks support the idea of addressing poverty through mixed-income developments, because these developments facilitate the bridging of social capital, and thus provide for a higher shared quality of life across socioeconomic cleavages. The argument that New Urbanism produces diversity has been challenged from findings from one community in Canada.

The New Urbanist preference for 'permeable' street grids has been criticised on the grounds that it gives private motor vehicles an advantage over walking, cycling and public transport. It is also argued to be less resistant to property crime than traditional suburban neighborhood conventions like cul de sacs and horseshoe loops. The transport performance of some New Urbanist developments, such as Poundbury, has been disappointing, with surveys revealing high levels of car use. The alternative view, termed 'filtered permeability' (see Permeability (spatial and transport planning)) is that, to give pedestrians and cyclists a time and convenience advantage, they need to be separated from motor vehicles in places.

A forthcoming rating system for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND, being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism, should help to quantify the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design. New Urbanist and board member of CNU, Doug Farr has taken a step further and coined Sustainable Urbanism, which combines New Urbanism and LEED-ND to create walkable, transit-served urbanism with high performance buildings and infrastructure.

New Urbanism has been criticized for being a form of centrally planned, large-scale development, "instead of allowing the initiative for construction to be taken by the final users themselves". It has been criticized for asserting universal principles of design instead of attending to local conditions.