Eight ideas for future-proofing the suburbs America?s suburbs are changing?how can that change be harnessed for good" ?Even suburban communities with a seemingly large supply of ?developable? greenfield land should think hard about business as usual,? says June Williamson, co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia. ?The time to pivot is now to address 21st-century challenges.? Curbed asked eight experts to share ideas for rethinking suburbia, from eliminating single-family zoning to densifying sprawl to reducing carbon footprints?even undoing the long-term impacts of segregation and facing the realities of rising poverty.

Walking
Help suburbs become places worth being by meeting the untapped demand for walkable neighborhoods.
Getting rid of mandatory single-family zoning is good, but lost in the recent conversation is that we?ll need a better option in its place. Form-based zoning codes can help create the mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented development that many of today?s young singles, empty nesters, and families?and influential companies?are seeking. This won?t be easy, though. One huge challenge is the amount of costly infrastructure required to transform typical suburban places to something denser and more walkable. Expanding federal, state, and local rehab tax incentives could help attract more private capital to cover the costs of building more walkable infrastructure, while also encouraging developers to retrofit old commercial and residential buildings?regional m...