Form-Based Code, Part 1: The Regulating Plan
A Sweet Street can only materialize when the quality of a people-first street matches the quality of what is built along side of its. Currently, what gets permitted to line our city streets is largely dictated by the zoning code, and in 2024 the Planning Department plans to make some much needed updates to the city’s zoning (pun definitely intended).
Building Salt Lake has a great overview of the proposed changes, but basically the city is repurposing the zoning code from primarily segregating the use of private property (separating residential, commercial, industrial, public and agricultural zones) and shifting the code’s purpose to regulating the shape (form) of the buildings. As a result of these changes, we should expect private owners to enjoy greater freedom to accommodate the use of their properties to meet the demand of the market, and by setting clear standards the code will simplify the development process, allowing the planning team to spend less time helping property owners navigate our complicated zoning code and more time Sweetening our Streets and surrounding areas.
If you are still wondering what exactly is form-based zoning,you are not alone. So we went searching for a definition to help us make sense of what form-based zoning is all about. According to the Form-Based Codes Institute, it is primarily about “land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code.”
Compare this to traditional zoning which focuses “on the micromanagement and segregation of land uses, and the control of development intensity through abstract and uncoordinated parameters (e.g., FAR, dwellings per acre, setbacks, parking ratios, traffic LOS), to the neglect of an integrated built form” and you may get an idea why all of us at Sweet Streets are very excited about these potential changes.
However, if form-based code is to deliver on its promise of predictable and high-quality results, it will necessarily require a robust public engagement process as its foundation for success. For this reason Sweet Streets wants to share with you, in the coming editions of our newsletter, the 5 basic regulatory elements that make up the implementation of a human-first effort for a successful form-based code.
The Regulating Plan
The Public Standards
The Building Standards
The Administration & Definitions
Today we'll focus on the Regulating Plan.
A general plan needs to organize the rural to urban character of each area of the city with coherent and logical progression based on the natural landscape of the community. The intent is to provide relief and cultivate a strong and predictable sense of place for each area of the city. It makes little sense to adjoin a natural zone next to a special district – there needs to be a logical progression that allows a person to easily distinguish “here” from “there”. The “Transect” map in the regulating plan allows an easy to understand visual representation of what zone each area of the city resides:
Source: Marc Aurel Schnabel
Will our city’s Regulating Plan define each transect area, and does the intent of the map harmonize our city’s built environment with the natural environment? Can you think of other questions regarding the Regulating Plan and its Transect map? After all, the success of our city’s efforts do not just rest on our Planning Department and Planning Commission, they also rely on the informed questions from an empowered public willing to build a Sweet City for us all.
