What’s New in Form-Based Zoning
During the 2017 APAColorado confere
nce in Telluride, Clarion Associates Director Don Elliott moderated a panel discussion on “What’s New in Form-based Zoning? Don’s co-panelists included Leslie Oberholtzer, AICP, LEED AP, Founding Principal of Codametrics, a national form-based code firm based in Chicago, and Sarah Showalter, AICP, Citywide Planning Supervisor for the City and County of Denver. Now that many communities have adopted some type of form-based regulation (either citywide or for selected areas), we should be gleaning some lessons about what works well and what we need to do better as we refine these tools in the future. Sarah Showalter focused on three key improvements to the Denver Zoning Code since its adoption in 2010. First, very strong development pressure has resulted in many larger buildings being designed as “boxes” in order to enclose (and hopefully lease or sell) the maximum possible amount of gross floor area. Denver’s response has been to propose a Mass Reduction requirement for upper stories of larger and taller buildings. As building height increases, the designers need to leave a defined ratio of the potential floor area vacant – a requirement that can be met through stepbacks, angled facades, upper floor patios or meeting areas, or a variety of other creative design approaches. In addition, Denver has proposed a significant amendment to promote the production of affordable housing. In the area surrounding the 38th and Blake Street station on the RTD heavy rail line between downtown Denver and the airport, the City is proposing significant maximum building height incentives for those new developments that include affordable housing. This proposed amendment represents the first introduction of height incentives into Denver’s zoning form-based zoning system. Leslie Oberholtzer described progress in crafting “second generation” amendments to the innovative and successful Bridge Street Corridor zoning district in Dublin, Ohio. Although originally designed as a pure “by right” zoning system in which almost all development approvals were administrative, the Bridge Street regulations are now being revised to allow a degree of discretionary review of design and appearance details by that city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. This change is being driven by the fact that a strict by-right approach resulted in fairly rigid standards in areas where more flexibility was needed, as well as a desire for the Commission to be more involved with the final look and feel of new development. In addition, the Bridge Street Corridor regulations are being revised to simplify the number of defined building types available in different areas, because experience showed that the distinctions between different building types had become unclear to the development community. These and other developments in form-based zoning underscore two of the key conclusions in The Rules That Shape Urban Form, an APA PAS report authored by Clarion Associates in 2012 – that the art and science of form-based controls continues to evolve, and that each local community adopts, develops, and refines those individual form-based regulations that are most relevant and effective in its political and economic context.