Sanger Sentinel, November 2022 Edition

MUNI 101

What are Zoning Codes?

Zoning codes are a vital tool for planning the layout of cities and ensuring that development proceeds in an orderly and logical fashion. Zoning codes enable land-use control—the legal power to decide what can be built where.

To understand the role of zoning in the context of planning practice, professional planners make a clear distinction between the process of planning, i.e., the process of defining a vision for the future, and the process of zoning, i.e., the regulatory tool by which those visions are achieved.

Types of Zoning

There are many types of zoning codes. For our purposes, we will address the following: Form- Based, Conventional/Traditional or “Euclidean” and, Modified Conventional/ Hybrid.

Form-Based Codes

A form-based code is a 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. A formbased code is a regulation, not a mere guideline, adopted into city, town, or county law. A formbased code offers a powerful alternative to conventional zoning regulation.

Form-based codes address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks. The regulations and standards in formbased codes are presented in both words and clearly drawn diagrams and other visuals. They are keyed to a regulating plan that designates the appropriate form and scale (and therefore, character) of development, rather than only distinctions in land-use types.

Five Main Elements of Form-Based Codes

1. Regulating Plan – A plan or map of the regulated area designating the locations where different building form standards apply.

2. Public Standards – Specifies elements in the public realm; sidewalk, travel lanes, on-street parking, street trees, furniture, etc.

3. Building Standards – Regulations control the features, configurations, and functions of buildings that define and shape the public realm.

4. Administration – A clearly defined and streamlined application and project review process.

5. Definitions – A glossary to ensure the precise use of technical terms.

Conventional/Traditional or “Euclidean” Zoning

Euclidean zoning is responsible for the sprawling, suburban character of much of the built environment in the United States.

Euclidean zoning is the separation of land uses by type—residential, commercial, retail, industrial, etc.—each into its own zones or areas within a given city. While Euclidean zoning is frequently associated with the development patterns of suburbia, it’s the most common form of zoning code, or the local legal tool for controlling the uses and development of land, in the United States. Even the largest cities in the United States have relied on Euclidean zoning throughout most of the 20th century and up to the present day.

Exclusionary zoning is another term frequently used to describe the separation of uses enabled by Euclidean zoning (i.e., single-family residential developments are allowed while multi-family residential, retail, and commercial development are excluded), and sometimes the terms “exclusionary” and “Euclidean” are used interchangeably in public discussions about planning and zoning.

Another conceptual model helpful for understanding the separation of uses enabled by Euclidean zoning is a comparison between a “hierarchical model” of zoning compared to a “flat” model. In a hierarchical model, land uses are envisioned like a pyramid. At the bottom are industrial zones, where retail uses and residential uses are also allowed. At the top are residential zones, which only allow residential uses. A hierarchical model of zoning thus allows for some mixing in the kinds of zones located at the base of the pyramid.

By comparison, in a flat model like Euclidean Zoning, each use is separated into its own area, allowing only one kind of use in each zone. In many communities, Euclidean zoning has been taken to the extreme by not only permitting only one kind of use in each zone but also by excluding any potential variation on that use. Not only do most residential zones in cities exclude industrial and retail uses from residential neighborhoods, but most residential zones also exclude variations among

residences—i.e., houses are acceptable, but apartment buildings are not.

In recent decades, planners have become more aware of the negative environmental and social effects of Euclidean zoning. As Euclidean zoning spread communities out and forced local serving businesses out of residential neighborhoods, people became more and more dependent on automobiles for commutes and daily needs. Automobile dependency creates air pollution and congestion, and transportation is now the largest source of the emissions causing climate change in the United States.

The growing knowledge of the negative effects of Euclidean zoning has inspired reform of traditional zoning practices and innovative new land-use control systems. In some cases, zoning reform uses the traditional tools of Euclidean zoning, but with far less restrictive and exclusionary prescriptions. Mixed-use zones, where new buildings are allowed for more than one use, are one sign of zoning reform implemented as a response to the effects of Euclidean zoning. Other reforms take a more fundamental approach, like in the example of form-based codes.

Hybrid Zoning

The term “hybrid code” generally refers to zoning regulations that combine various aspects of all the zoning models. It is the meshing of conventional zoning codes with graphic urban design standards that typically address setbacks, parking placement, building bulk, materials, and architectural features. There are hundreds of approaches to combining different types of zoning codes. In fact, it is safe to say that no two hybrid zoning systems are the same.

Source:Codenext.com; millmanland.com; https://www.planetizen.com/