Principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism →
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The Region, Metropolis City and Town

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The metropolitan region is a fundamental economic unit of the contemporary world.

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Governmental cooperation, public policy, physical planning, and economic strategies must reflect this new reality.

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Metropolitan regions are finite places with geographic boundaries derived from topography, watersheds, coastlines, farmlands, regional parks, and river basins.

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The metropolis is made of multiple centers that are cities, towns, and villages, each with its own identifiable center and edges.

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The metropolis has a necessary and fragile relationship to its agrarian hinterland and natural landscapes.

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The relationship is environmental, economic, and cultural. Farmland and nature are as important to the metropolis as the garden is to the house.

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Development patterns should not blur or eradicate the edges of the metropolis.

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Infill development within existing areas conserves environmental resources, economic investment, and social fabric, while reclaiming marginal and abandoned areas. Metropolitan regions should develop strategies to encourage such infill development over peripheral expansion.

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Where appropriate, new development contiguous to urban boundaries should be organized as neighborhoods and districts, and be integrated with the existing urban pattern.

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Noncontiguous development should be organized as towns and villages with their own urban edges, and planned for a jobs/housing balance, not as bedroom suburbs.

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The development and redevelopment of towns and cities should respect historical patterns, precedents and boundaries.

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Cities and towns should bring into proximity a broad spectrum of public and private uses to support a regional economy that benefits people of all incomes.

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Affordable housing should be distributed throughout the region to match job opportunities to avoid concentrations of poverty.

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The physical organization of the region should be supported by a framework of transportation alternatives.

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Transit, pedestrian, and bicycle systems should maximize access and mobility throughout the region while reducing dependence on the automobile.

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Revenues and resources can be shared more cooperatively among the municipalities and centers within regions to avoid destructive competition for tax base and to promote rational coordination of transportation, recreation, public services, housing, and community institutions.

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