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New Urbanism is most often appraised in terms of its physical design, while analysis of its social goals is limited to unsubstantiated claims about New Urbanists’ desire to engage in social engineering. This article presents the results of an evaluation of the explicit, stated link between the physical planning proposals of New Urbanism and three types of social goals: community, social equity, and the common good. The analysis is based on the Charter of the New Urbanism, which describes each core principle in detail.

Of the 27 principles, 8 are related to equity, while 19 are connected to promoting the common good. None of the principles is explicitly related to community, although notions of community are often invoked for descriptive purposes. It is hoped that these results will help clarify the discussion of the relationship between physical planning and social goals in the context of New Urbanism.