What are some of the latest approaches to urban planning?
To help address urban and suburban planning issues, such as traffic congestion and sprawl, zoning regulations are being rethought, from the ground up. One increasingly popular alternative to traditional zoning regulations are form based codes (FBCs), that regulate development by guiding and encouraging the desired forms of growth using design guidance, and not through proscriptive zoning rules, like single use zones, height, bulk, density, and setback requirements.
Traditional rules make a structure's type and physical placement more important than its function. Rather than adhere to regulations that lead to uniformity, FBCs allow variety and flexibility in the layout, design, and activities of development projects.
How popular are these new zoning methods?
Planners and communities are increasingly embracing FBCs. They realize design flexibility and mixed use—allowing businesses and residences to exist side by side—can reduce traffic and sprawl problems. Rehabilitating and redeveloping existing buildings can help reinvigorate declining neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods built under FBCs typically look more diverse and function more flexibly than those built under traditional zoning statutes. Unlike bylaws that stringently proscribe density and use, FBCs enable towns and cities to reduce vehicle dependency, allow for greater architectural variation, accommodate a broader mix of income groups, and improve quality of life.
How do these concepts converge to help manage a city's budget and its future visions?
FBCs are cost-effective and promote smart growth. In urban areas, they encourage infill and promote reuse of existing structures. Thanks to fewer regulations, city officials can focus their review and oversight time on issues that are of the greatest significance.
When FBCs are implemented, a neighborhood can maintain its individual character, while being confident that new growth will harmonize, without appearing identical. It is less complicated for cities to achieve aesthetic and lifestyle goals, such as encouraging walking, maintaining architectural diversity, and accommodating an increasing and more diverse population.
Are urban planning projects usually local initiatives or are they undertaken by a region or state?
Areas that are already built out are very interested in learning how to manage their existing infrastructure and accommodate expanding populations. In many states, towns and counties that are rewriting their master plans are now adopting FBCs. Some states are even interested in requiring such concepts, making them law. In 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed state Assembly bill 1268, making California the first state to designate FBCs a priority for managing urban form and growth.
What are some recent CDM urban planning success stories?
CDM led Los Angeles County's environment planning and impact analysis during development of the Village at Playa Vista, a planned development with retail, open space, and 2,600 residential units.
As with other projects, CDM was critical in leading the Los Angeles County public reviews. Public meetings are hugely important in helping people understand their options when it comes to development. Public groups are especially receptive to FBCs because their simpler guidelines allow for better urban design and encourage site improvements that recognize a broader range of community needs. This adds an authentic feel to neighborhoods that are threatened by large-scale developments.
CDM also created an FBC implementation toolkit for municipalities along a Burlington County, New Jersey highway corridor. The effects of U.S. Rt. 130's industrial and commercial decline were mitigated using a form-based code approach. This plan included improvements that reduced traffic congestion, improved pedestrian circulation, and made the area more visually pleasing.
Pearl River County, Mississippi, had not previously felt the need to implement land use regulations. But the County is experiencing strong growth associated with residents seeking to relocate in the region, away from the flood-vulnerable lands of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. CDM has been asked to create an innovative FBC for the County, instead of traditional zoning regulations. CDM is creating a FBC that stresses conservation of this area's beautiful natural resources, while accommodating and guiding new growth using facilitation rather than regulation.