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By Daniel Parolek
<br />73 Estate (T3E)
<br />T3 Neighborhood (T3N)
<br />n F( .) r
<br />art
<br />T4 Neighborhood Med. Footprint (T4N.1) T5 Main Street (T5MS)
<br />T4 Neighborhood Small Footprint (T4N.2) T5 Neighborhood (T5N)
<br />Most cities have a broken zoning system that
<br />is not delivering the type of development they
<br />want or need to be able to respond to shifting
<br />market demands for walkable urban places or
<br />other trends that will enable them to compete
<br />as 21st century cities or regions. As Rouse and
<br />Zobl explained in the May 2004 issue of Zoning
<br />Practice, there are two fundamental problems
<br />with Euclidean zoning: (1) separating uses
<br />and limiting density has led to excessive land
<br />consumption and (2) proscriptive development
<br />standards have proven ineffective in protect-
<br />ing traditional urban neighborhoods from
<br />incompatible development. Consequently,
<br />it's no surprise that a growing number of com-
<br />munities have expressed interest in the form -
<br />based code (FBC) as a potential solution to the
<br />problems posed by conventional, Euclidean,,
<br />zoning.
<br />While form -based coding was conceptu-
<br />alized as a comprehensive, communitywide
<br />approach to regulating the form of develop-
<br />ment in a city or region, at the time of Rouse
<br />and Zobi's article, most FBCs applied only to
<br />specific neighborhoods or districts. The good
<br />news is that the theory has now been proven
<br />in practice.
<br />Since 2004, citywide FBCs have spread
<br />rapidly to large cities like Miami and Denver;
<br />medium-sized cities like Cincinnati; towns like
<br />Flagstaff, Arizona, and Livermore, California;
<br />and even small rural communities like Kings -
<br />burg, California. At the county level, Lee, North
<br />St. Lucie, and Sarasota counties in Florida
<br />have all adopted FBCs, and Beaufort County,
<br />South Carolina, and Kauai County (the entire
<br />island), Hawaii, are currently working on new
<br />codes. Even in the sprawling Phoenix region,
<br />Mesa, Arizona, has adopted a FBC to prepare
<br />Most cities have
<br />a broken zoning
<br />system that is not
<br />delivering the type
<br />of development they
<br />want or need.
<br />its downtown to capture the transformative
<br />potential of transit, and Phoenix is about to
<br />embark on an FBC effort after an early failed
<br />attempt. In fact, as of November 2012, there
<br />were more than 25o adopted FBCs across the
<br />country, with 82 percent adopted since 2003
<br />(Borys and Talen).
<br />In this same period, the proliferation of
<br />articles on form -based coding in trade publica-
<br />tions such as Urban Land, The Urban Lawyer,
<br />® These illustrations
<br />show the seven
<br />transect-based zones in
<br />Cincinnati's new FBC.
<br />Opticos Design, Inc.
<br />Economic Development Journal, and Builder
<br />testifies to spreading interest among develop-
<br />ers, land -use attorneys, economic development
<br />professionals, and home builders. In 2004, a
<br />group of early form -based coding practitioners
<br />and advocates founded the Form -Based Codes
<br />Institute to promote best practices and expand
<br />awareness, and the first comprehensive book
<br />on the topic, Form -Based Codes: A Guide for
<br />Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and
<br />Developers, appeared in 2008.
<br />The flip side of this wave of adoptions is
<br />that many cities have experienced ineffective
<br />or failed past attempts at form -based coding.
<br />There are two primary reasons for this. First,
<br />there is a shortage of practitioners who can do
<br />form -based coding well. The combination of
<br />technical zoning knowledge and understanding
<br />of how to write effective regulations —com-
<br />bined with the need for strong urban design
<br />skills that enables the FBC writer to understand
<br />what makes a community unique, what will
<br />make it better, and what built results the code
<br />writing will influence —is not a common set
<br />of skills taught to planners or architects. Sec-
<br />ond, many cities do not have the knowledge
<br />to know what to ask for or demand of their
<br />consultants in a form -based coding process.
<br />An estimated half of the cities asking for FBCs
<br />are simply getting "user-friendly" updates that
<br />do not address the core problems in the code.
<br />ZONINGPRACTICE 5.13
<br />AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION Ipage 2
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