The Relevance of Europe’s New Towns for United States Urban Policy

Abstract

Since new towns are one of the most striking developments of the last two decades in Europe, increasing numbers of American planners, architects, and urbanologists have been visiting its new towns in search of ideas which may be applicable in the United States, especially since passage of the 1970 Housing Act whereby new towns became an official part of our federal goverment's urban growth policy. In this paper, five new towns are described—Cumbernauld, Scotland; Crawley, England; Bijlmermeer, Holland; Farsta, Sweden; and Tapiola, Finland. All of these were studied during the summer of 1970, and major principles, objectives, and methods of European urban land use policy are discussed. It is contended that besides being humane, new towns offer unusual opportunities for experimentations in (1) public-private agency cooperation; (2) municipal reorganization; (3) the elimination of such obsolete practices as standard zoning; and (4) democratic living. Nevertheless, it is emphasized that the glamour of the new towns approach should not be allowed to eclipse the equally important task of recreating and reinvigorating older core cities that are complementary to new towns in satisfying the needs of urban man which are essentially identical from one society to another, despite historical and cultural differences.