Form-based codes catch on, in city and suburb

Form-based codes suddenly seem to be popping up ev- erywhere. Two of the latest communities moving toward implementing them are a fast-growing suburb in Texas and a distressed industrial city in Ohio — municipalities that are almost polar opposites in their economy, history, and population. Leander, Texas, about 30 miles northwest of Austin, adopted a form-based code in September that is expected to shape $2 billion of intense development on 2,000 acres. In Cleveland, Ohio, form-based codes are envisioned as serving quite a different purpose: helping community development corporations guide the redevelopment of old and somewhat tired commercial corridors. Together, Leander, with 16,000 inhabitants, and Cleveland, with half a million, illustrate the applicability of form-based coding in widely varying circumstances. Form-based codes, which focus more on defining the form and placement of buildings than on regulating their uses, are becoming a principal tool in new urbanist planning. (For other examples, see December 2005 New Urban News report on codes for the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Columbia, Maryland.) Leander, which is expected to grow to a population of 50,000 to 100,000, is using its new code to regulate development in an area where both a commuter rail line from downtown Austin and a new toll road will terminate. “It’s value capture,” said Scott Polikov of Gateway Planning Group, which helped devise Leander’s code — he describes it as the first adopted version of the SmartCode in Texas. Under conventional zoning, probably $1 billion in development would come to the area near the transportation facilities. With the form-based code, the investment will likely double, analysts predict. Voters in November 2004 approved Urban Commuter Rail on existing freight tracks from Austin to Leander — the first leg of what could eventually be a regional passenger rail system. The service could start running by 2008. Polikov said a consultant team, led by his firm and including PlaceMakers, TXP Economists, Capitol Market Research, and Pate Engineering, helped the city devise a Transect-based master plan and an adapted version of the SmartCode. The code requires buildings at least three stories high in the urban core (T6) and at least two stories in the urban center (T5). Each development project of 20 acres or more must contain at least four housing types if it is in T4 or T5, or at least three housing types in T3 (general urban). Residential development must be at least 20 units per acre in T5 and at least 12 units an acre in T4. Although “Old Town” Leander makes up part of the site, the bulk of the development will be greenfield development. The code is mandatory in the 2,000 acres, completely replacing the existing zoning and subdivision ordinances. The city government and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority were the key public entities involved in the plan. They worked with major landowners, who paid 85 percent of the cost of the $500,000-plus effort, according to Polikov. The code makes it easy for builders to figure out quickly what they can and cannot build within the development, eliminating delays. Last winter a charrette led by Bill Dennis and Steve Mouzon, produced visions of “a mini-metropolis with sidewalk cafes, walkable neighborhoods and small parks, centered on a Capital Metro commuter rail station,” the Austin American-Statesman reported. Tax-increment financing has been proposed; it “would allow developers to recoup half of their infrastructure costs by drawing from a city fund set aside for that purpose,” the newspaper reported. Polikov believes the form-based code will enable Leander to attract empty nesters and dense development that would otherwise be much harder to attract. This should bolster the community’s economy and enhance municipal finances. Codes for Cleveland corridors In Cleveland, two neighborhood development corporations — in Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway — are working with Cleveland State University and the private sector to craft a model form-based zoning code for the Lorain Avenue corridor on the city’s West Side. If the approach is successful, it could later be applied to other corridors, such as Slavic Village/Broadway. Wendy Kellogg, associate professor of urban planning at the university’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, is collaborating with planning consultant Bruce Donnelly on seeking funds for the project. “It begins with the notion that a form-based code can help restore the unraveled urban fabric in many of our neighborhoods,” Kellogg said. “We plan to form advisory groups, one consisting of professionals from the development community and another consisting of a set of stakeholders from the neighborhood where we hope to conduct a pilot study, working with the neighborhood development organizations. The code that is expected to result from neighborhood consensus would be administered through a “regulating plan,” which specifies such elements as setbacks, heights, materials, and locations of buildings in relation to one another. There would also be policies to control parking and other features. “Our premise is that if the external form and function of the building can be firmed up through the regulating plan” rather than left to the vagaries of design review, “the residents would get the kind of built form they want and the developer would have a more straightforward process under which to develop,” Kellogg explained. “There would be less friction, and, hopefully, more investment. Recently the city adopted a code that mandates such things as buildings at least three stories high at the street edge in Midtown, a 1.2-mile stretch of Euclid Avenue from East 40th to East 79th Street, where bus rapid transit is to be installed (see October 2005 New Urban News). “It is not a form-based code per se, but it is very specific about form,” said Donnelly. The Plain Dealer reported Nov. 7 that MidTown Cleveland Inc. “is in serious talks with developer Nathan Zaremba about development that could bring up to 500 dwellings to both sides of Euclid, from East 71st to East 79th.” “Both the Cleveland State University project and the Midtown project reflect the heartfelt desire of community development corporations to get a handle on the physical build-out of their community plans,” Donnelly said. “We have good community development corporations producing good plans, including those by the Kent State Cleveland Urban Design Center here, but they need a way to make sure they get built as [the groups] envision … A form-based code gives them a way to coordinate (not control) the build-out.”