IS ZONING HOLDING YOUR COMMUNITY BACK?

Whether it's building more housing, supporting small businesses and manufacturers, or creating more people-scaled streets, chances are zoning is an obstacle to the change you want to see.

The typical American zoning code is highly prescriptive; it mandates lot sizes, what can happen inside buildings, setbacks from the street, and minimum parking requirements, among other restrictions that often lead to sprawling, car-dependent development.

Form-based codes have been growing in popularity as an alternative—a way to create more walkable communities that fit the context and character of existing development that makes a place unique and attractive in the first place. Cities as diverse as Fort Worth, TX and Palm Desert, CA have used form-based codes with great success.

Since 2008, the Form-Based Codes Institute has been honoring great form-based codes with the Richard H. Driehaus Award. The winners give other communities models to adopt and adapt and provide valuable insights into what makes a great form-based code.

As we draw closer to announcing this year's Driehaus Award winner(s) on Friday at the 27th Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 27), we took a look back at what the past 11 years have shown us about great zoning codes and how form-based codes have matured and evolved in that time.  

Find us at CNU 27

Smart Growth America staff are on the ground in Louisville, KY this week for CNU to both partake in and contribute to the conference. If you'll be there, be sure to check out these events.

1. Smart Growth America President and CEO Calvin Gladney and FBCI Executive Director Marta Goldsmith will join Kathy Galvin, Karen Parolek, and Alberto Vargas for Form-Based Codes: A means of equity in the compassionate city from 4-5:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 13 at the Embassy Suites in Louisville. This session will focus on how form-based codes are able to promote equitable development.
2. Calvin Gladney will also be moderating the plenary session—Building Together: Urbanism as an Engine for Resilient, Fair Communities—Thursday evening from 5:30-7 p.m. with Jair Lynch, president of LOCUS (a program of Smart Growth America), and Maurice Cox. This conversation will focus on the legacy of longstanding systemic racism and economic inequity, due to a complex interplay of federal and local policies, that still promote economic exclusion of people of color in both booming cities and towns and places struggling with revitalization and a lack of investment. This plenary will be live streamed at CNU.org.
3. Driehaus Jury Chair George Proakis will announce this year's Driehaus Award winners with FBCI Steering Committee Chair Marina Khoury on Friday, June 14 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Muhammad Ali Center during the 2019 Charter Awards Ceremony.