Two Ways of New Towns Development: A Tale of Two Cities

Abstract

New Towns, or Planned Communities, are cities in which all aspects of development are determined before construction begins. Eichler and Kaplan (1967) and Griffin (1974) have defined “new community” as a large development, generally over 1000 hectares (2500 acres) that has a comprehensive and mixed-use design conforming to a single master plan and a socially diverse population. The most self-contained are also called “new towns”. The related term, refers to a community that seeks to produce a range of valuable social, environmental, and economic benefits than more conventional, less comprehensively planned developments are likely to achieve. Such communities have been proposed as creative alternatives to conventional developments for many years and in many countries. New Towns are generally thought of as being of two types: ‘independent’, if they contain employment for their own residents and ‘satellite1’ if a substantial number of residents commute to another metropolis. Development of New Towns is expensive, particularly the provision of their infrastructure. Despite a high level of subsidy from central government and often regional authorities as well, the new towns remain heavily in debt, a problem exacerbated by the currently much reduced rates of demographic and economic growth. The slow pace at which land is being acquired and premises are being occupied increases the burden of repaying the loans contracted to finance development. Additional financial difficulties have arisen over the running of the new towns’ services, due to the present relatively small local tax income, which is available to support them...