Flagstaff approves TND ordinance

The City of Flagstaff, Arizona, unanimously approved a traditional neighborhood development (TND) ordinance closely modeled on the SmartCode in November, 2007, according to Roger Eastman, the city’s code administrator. New thoroughfare standards that go along with the code were approved in December.
“The city did not proceed with developing a TND ordinance until MJN Development approached city staff in early 2006 with the intention of developing a 320-acre site as a traditional neighborhood development to be called Juniper Point,” Eastman wrote in a paper submitted to New Urban News. “Dover, Kohl & Partners were hired as the planning consultants.” A charrette was held in April, 2006, creating a plan for four neighborhoods separated by open space “on a topographically challenging site.”

When city council approved the plan at the end of 2006, “the pressure was now on city staff to write a TND ordinance so that this developer could proceed with land use entitlements for Juniper Point, as well as others after him for similar TND projects,” he says. Eastman, who attended a SmartCode workshop, determined that modeling the TND ordinance on the SmartCode was the best way to proceed. The ordinance is optional for areas of the city designed as “mixed use” or “traditional neighborhood development,” according to Eastman.