CNU Charter Translated

The Congress for the New Urbanism advocates:

disproportionate government investment in central cities,

government restrictions on choice of home or neighborhood,

government mandated forced integration by race and income,

increased government protections of the environment by limiting choice and use of private property,

and the application of government policies to return to old city form and dominance.

Restore density in the old cities, increase density in the new suburbs and place prohibitions on any land use policies that result in either lower densities or investment outside the dense urban areas.

We recognize that intense limits on personal liberty and private property rights are necessary as physical solutions by themselves will not solve social and economic problems inherent in our prefered urban patterns, but neither can economic vitality, community stability, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive physical framework.

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.

We seek to impose our extremeist and extreme minority views on the general population with force of government upon broad-based citizenry, composed of public and private sector leaders, community activists, and multidisciplinary professionals. We are committed to reestablishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design. In short, we want to direct.

We dedicate ourselves to reclaiming our homes, blocks, streets, parks, neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, regions, and environment.