Wisconsin update

Adoption of TND ordinances off to slow start Wisconsin’s 1999 smart growth law mandated that all cities and towns with more than 12,500 people had to adopt some form of traditional neighborhood development (TND) ordinance no later than January 1, 2002. The reality is that less than 20 percent of the 57 communities have met the deadline, and that many planners and officials are unsure how such an ordinance applies to their community. Some cities have taken the path of least resistance, fulfilling the letter of the law by adopting a model ordinance verbatim. Others, such as Sun Prairie in Dane County, already have strong interest in fostering TNDs and are working to create an ordinance above and beyond the model. “It was never our intention for municipalities to just adopt the model,” says Brian Ohm of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Madison who coauthored the model ordinance (see sidebar for details). “But it’s been difficult to make people see this as an opportunity rather than a mandate, and the need for education is much greater than we anticipated.” Ohm says planners and elected officials are “scratching their heads” for several reasons. Some communities have emerged since the end of World War II, and while they meet the population threshold, they have virtually no traditional urban neighborhoods that planners can mine for local standards. The flip side is the older, fully built-out town with very little vacant land and low development pressure — here some planners don’t see the need for another ordinance. According to Ohm, some of these cities do not anticipate the infill redevelopment that will be needed in the future. Finally, some suburban edge municipalities see themselves as primarily rural communities where a TND ordinance based on an urban vocabulary will find little application. “Many communities have a planned unit development (PUD) ordinance and think that is enough,” Ohm says. Since neither the model ordinance nor the smart growth legislation include specific incentives for developers and municipalities to use or promote a TND ordinance, and since few developers are clamoring for an easier way to do TND, the adoption process has lacked momentum. In the City of Eau Claire, the planning department has chosen to replace the model’s submittal and review procedures with those in the local PUD ordinance while keeping the TND design guidelines. City Planner Darryl Tufte says the city has dropped the idea of detailed TND street standards in favor of more general language calling for narrow streets. “We already require sidewalks and some of our street standards are actually narrower that what is in the model,” he adds. The city has publicized the new ordinance, has consulted with the local development community and received only favorable comments, but Tufte doubts that any developers will use it. “They want to build certain aspects of TND, but with the ordinance you have to do it all,” he says. In the last stages of drafting, Eau Claire’s ordinance is scheduled for adoption in March. Oshkosh is one of the few cities to meet the deadline, and as in Eau Claire the model has undergone minor changes to make sure the review process is compatible with the PUD ordinance. Principal planner Kristie Bales notes that the planning department also changed the minimum size of a TND to 10 acres from the recommended 15 acres and the minimum size of an infill development from the recommended 10 acres to 1.5 acres. The model’s street standards were adopted as is. Sun Prairie is hot spot The most favorable prospects for use of the TND code are found in Dane County, which includes the City of Madison. The Middleton Hills project in Middleton has generated interest in the concept among developers, and the City of Sun Prairie has three projects in the review pipeline, all under the existing PUD ordinance. The city encouraged TND before the model ordinance was introduced and is the municipality in Dane County farthest along in the adoption process. Sun Prairie has looked beyond Wisconsin to create the best possible ordinance, says Rick Roll, the city’s director of planning and economic development. Using the Austin, Texas, TND ordinance as a base, the department is also drawing on ordinances from Columbus, Ohio; Cary, North Carolina; and the Smart Code developed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. “The TND model ordinance is too similar to a PUD ordinance — it doesn’t have enough incentive for developers,” Roll says. “We looked to Austin for ideas on compressing and streamlining the approval process, having more consultations with designers and developers up front.” Roll is hoping to add financial incentives such as density bonuses if the political will is present. In addition to adopting the TND ordinance, Sun Prairie is working on a complete overhaul of its zoning codes and updating its general plan with a greater emphasis on principles of the New Urbanism. Regionally, Roll is working with planners in other Dane County cities to harmonize the TND ordinances throughout the county. New zoning in Milwaukee In Milwaukee, Mayor John Norquist has been a strong advocate for the New Urbanism, and under the direction of Planning Director Peter Park, the Department of City Development began work on a new zoning code four years ago. The code, now in final revision, is a radical departure from its 80-year-old predecessor both in text and mapping. “We have created new zoning districts that reflect the actual urban development patterns in the city,” says John Hyslop, manager of planning administration. “Many old neighborhoods were basically illegal under the old code.” Residential districts includes several tiers of single-family, two family, and multifamily districts with varying lot standards and setbacks depending on their location in the urban to suburban continuum. Residential-office districts allow a mix of uses, as do the neighborhood shopping districts, and both district types specifically allow inclusion of live/work units. An industrial-mixed district provides for industrial and warehouse areas with multistory buildings to be converted to residential, retail, or offices uses. “The change of the zoning has been amazingly noncontroversial,” Hyslop says, and adds that Park has met extensively with the public and elected officials to explain the need for new standards. Milwaukee received a waiver in the smart growth legislation since the new zoning standards were consistent with the spirit of the TND ordinance. The new code will make new urbanist standards a requirement, not an option — unlike other cities in the state. The statewide TND experiment is behind schedule and indications are that many of the targeted communities will fulfill only the minimum requirements. On the plus side for supporters of the New Urbanism, Wisconsin will soon have more cities and towns with an optional TND ordinance than any other state. It will now be up to the development community to use these codes.