The source for New Urbanism, smart growth, and walkable communities
Miami approves nation’s largest
form-based code
Development in Miami will become more pedestrian friendly than it was during the car-dominated 20th century.
Form-based codes reach a milestone
Since 2001, when Carol Wyant coined the term “form-based code,” this relatively new tool for shaping development has found a receptive audience in communities nationwide.
Hybrid codes versus form-based codes
Hybrid codes involve the meshing of conventional zoning codes with graphic urban design standards that typically address setbacks, parking placement, building bulk, materials, and architectural features. Such a hybrid is not a form-based code and likely will not produce the physical outcome desired.
A ‘boomburb’ adopts New Urbanism
Mesquite, Texas, a large suburb of Dallas, approves one of the largest applications of the SmartCode in the US and is working on a city-wide form-based code.
El Paso, Texas, approved the SmartCode in July, 2008, as an optional alternative to the city’s conventional zoning and subdivision codes.
Cranberry approves TND ordinance
Cranberry Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, approved a traditional neighborhood development (TND) ordinance drawn up by Thomas Comitta Associates of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
No more excuses on zoning reform
Robert Steuteville calls out sprawl’s regulatory culprits.
Codes and plans make progress
If the New Urbanism is going to change development patterns in a fundamental way, the keys will be codes and regional plans. These have the potential to change the land-use operating system, improving the outcomes long after the practitioners who create the codes and plans leave town. That’s the theory — so it’s nice to see the theory becoming a reality.
New codes written for Gulf Coast
The Mississippi Renewal Forum provided one of the first opportunities to introduce an entire region to the SmartCode and the idea of Transect-based and form-based coding.
Books
SmartCode Version 9 and Manual
A seminal work of the New Urbanism By Andres Duany, Sandy Sorlien, and William Wright From New Urban News Publications Inc.
A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers.
A Legal Guide to Urban
and Sustainable Development
For Planners, Developers, and Architects.
Form-based codes news
Codes are the DNA of communities — determining their appearance and function in 10 or 20 years. Most 20th Century zoning codes mandated sprawl. Form-based codes are a 21st Century idea that is starting to improve the built environment. This page offers news and resources relating to custom form-based codes, the SmartCode, and other codes based on principles of the New Urbanism.
Resources
An organization formed by leading practitioners to promote the development and implementation of form-based codes.
is the key website for the SmartCode, a model Transect-based development code available for all scales of planning. The open-source code has been locally calibrated and adopted in communities across the US and the World. Additionally, there are plug-in modules on a variety of subjects including architecture, affordable housing, agricultural urbanism, and sustainable urbanism.
Center for Applied Transect Studies
promotes understanding of the built environment as part of the natural environment, through the planning methodology of the rural-to-urban transect.
An web-based anthology of codes and regulations that have shaped the urban form throughout history — up to the present.
Links to codes and articles on Transect-based codes.
Form-based codes
Citywide code based on the SmartCode.
Infill SmartCode for seven square miles.
SmartCode calibrated for this city of 201,000 in southcentral Alabama.
Downtown Benicia, CA, Mixed Use Master Plan
A plan and form-based code for the downtown of a city of 26,000.
Midtown Corridors Development Code, Ventura, CA
Code for Main Street and Thompson Boulevard.
As part of an effort to recover from Hurricane Katrina, the city worked with new urbanist planners to adopt a SmartCode in 2007.
SmartCode customized to guide development in existing and planned transit corridors.
St. Lucie County, FL (pdf download)
A form-based code designed to guide development within a 28 square mile area.
Sarasota County Mixed Use Infill Code
Form-based code for infill development.
Columbia Pike, Arlington County, VA
Form-based code used as an optional, expedited development process that has helped to revitalize an aging suburban, 3-mile-long corridor into a mixed-use, urban street.
A plan and form-based code for 8,000 acres in residential and business districts.
Miami 21 delayed; changes likely
Common mistakes of form-based codes
Nine errors that people commonly make when designing and applying form-based codes.
Flower Mound, Texas, form-based code. Courtesy of Scott Polikov, Gateway Planning Group.
New Urbanism: Best Practices Guide, 4th Ed.
The definitive reference for new urban ideas, practices, and projects
SmartCode Version 9 and Manual
A seminal work of the New Urbanism
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