The city of Miami last night adopted a zoning code overhaul, called Miami 21. Here’s the Miami Herald article on it. Why should folks around here care? Here’s why:
The new zoning overhaul is what’s called a “form-based code.” Raleigh is about to write one. Cabarrus County already has one. So does Davidson. Miami is the largest city, so far, to adopt one, but Denver is likely to adopt its own comprehensive form-based code in a matter of months, says blogger Mike Lydon. It’s an approach to zoning that many progressive cities are taking on. Should Charlotte?
A form-based code bases rules that govern planning and zoning on buildings’ form, not their use. In other words, what goes on inside a building (residence? office? store?) is less important than how the building fits in with what’s around it.
For instance, it says parking lots have to be behind new buildings, and the buildings have to sit at the sidewalk – which makes walking down the sidewalk more attractive, thus encouraging people to walk instead of drive.
Form-based codes also generally use an approach with a weird-sounding name that makes plenty of sense – a “transect.” It means you look at which areas are intensely urban, or completely rural, or somewhere in between and design things such as streets, sidewalks, even storm water management, based on how urban or suburban or rural an area is. It prevents, for instance, plopping a highway designed for intercity travel (think I-277) into a dense urban core. To move traffic there, it would say, use a high-capacity boulevard. (Think Champs-Elysee.)
Just as important, when adopted, a form based code is a plan with teeth. It overlays the city’s expectations for urban density or suburban density or rural density onto the whole jurisdiction, complete with the zoning rules that govern those areas. So the “plan” isn’t just a guideline but is a legal requirement. Imagine that!
One of the leaders of Miami’s effort was the dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, a luminary in the New Urbanism movement.
Here’s a link to the Web site for the code itself. And if it rains today and you’re looking for some meaty reading, here’s the pdf for the code itself.