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Town House Standards <br />Mary Fishman and Tom Smith <br />Originally conceived as in-town housing for <br />the rich, whose. mansions were in the coun- <br />tryside, the town house form proved read- <br />ilyadaptable tothe more modest means <br />of the working class in older cities such <br />as Philadelphia, New York, Boston,.and <br />Chicago. Today, many cities and suburbs <br />have town house developments built at <br />densities that promote pedestrian-oriented <br />neighborhoods and support the use of <br />mass transit. <br />Limited in height bythe number of <br />flights ofstairs aperson-can comfortably <br />~- climb, town houses have a human scale. <br />Most are onlytwo orthree stories. Many <br />town houses have small frontyards that <br />provide welcome Flowers and shrubs in <br />a dense urban neighborhood. Theymay <br />have front stoops and baywindows that <br />work with short setbacks to put residents <br />in neighborly proximity to passersby on the <br />sidewalks. <br />We worked forthe Chicago Depart- <br />ment of Planning and Development during <br />the housing boom ofthe i99os and early <br />zooos. Before the city's Townhouse Or- <br />dinancewas passed in i9g8, most town <br />house projects had to be approved either <br />through the Zoning Board of Appeals pro- <br />cess ortheplanned development process. <br />The town house form did not fit under Chi- <br />cago's as-of-right zoning, mainly because <br />individual units~lacked side yards between <br />them. As we reviewed more and more town <br />house projects and sawsome shockingly <br />bad buildings being pioposed, it became <br />clear thatthe zoning code'"s silence on <br />town houses was putting Chicago's neigh- <br />borhoods atrisk. <br />52 <br />Town houses have historically played an <br />important role in cities and are an attractive <br />option for suburbs. <br />ZONINGPRACTICE z.ao <br />AMERICAN PUNNING AGSOCIATONIpage 3 <br />