The Congress for New Urbanism announced that it will be hosting its 2009 convention in Denver. Made up of architects, engineers, planners, developers, and public officials, the Congress is a national organization promoting alternatives to sprawl.
Denver has several new urbanist neighborhoods that, unlike the suburbs, feature walkable, mixed use housing and shopping developments. These new areas mimic the Capitol Hill and Washington Park areas; schools, grocery stores, restaurants, apartments, and single family homes exist side by side. Stapleton, at the site of the city’s old airport in Northeast Denver, is one of the city’s largest new urbanist developments. Lowry, at the site of the former air force base, and Highlands’ Garden Village, on the site of the old Elitch Gardens amusement park in Northwest Denver, are two others.