Country Towns
. . . this pattern forms the backbone of The Distribution of Towns, which requires that scores of smaller country towns support the larger towns and cities of the region.
Problem:
The big city is a magnet. It is terribly hard for small towns to stay alive and healthy in the face of central urban growth.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Preserve country towns where they exist; and encourage the growth of new self-contained towns, with populations between 500and 10,000, entirely surrounded by open countryside and at least 10 miles from neighboring towns. Make it the region's collective concern to give each town the wherewithal it needs to build a base of local industry, so that these towns are not dormitories for people who work in other places, but real towns—able to sustain the whole of life.
Usage:
Treat each of these small towns as a political community, with full provision for all the stages of human life—Community of 7,000, Life Cycle. Treat the belt of open country which surrounds the town as farm land which belongs to the people and can be freely used by them—The Countryside . . .
pg. 33