SmartCode
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Background
In the discussion of Smart Growth and alternatives to sprawl one of the key aspects most often overlooked is that developers are often working within a system of community development codes and standards that were designed, whether intentionally or not, to promote subdivisions and strip malls. For those who wish to change these patterns for their communities to allow for land conservation and to promote traditional patterns of hamlet, village, town and city, new codes are necessary designed for this purpose. The most comprehesive example of a code designed from the ground up for this purpose is the SmartCode as described below.
Technical Description
The SmartCode is a model form-based unified land development ordinance designed to create walkable neighborhoods with the full range of the rural-urban transect. The SmartCode was originally developed by Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Co.
Model Code – The SmartCode is a model code, with metrics designed to create a generic medium-sized American city structured into walkable neighborhoods. The model code is freeware, a template meant to be locally customized by professional planners, architects, and attorneys.
Form-Based – The SmartCode is a form-based code. Conventional Euclidean zoning regulates land development with the most emphasis on controlling land use. Form-based zoning has been developed over the last twenty years to overcome the problems of sprawl created by use-based codes. Form-based zoning regulates land development with the most emphasis on controlling urban form and less emphasis on controlling land uses (although uses with negative impacts, such as heavy industry, adult businesses, etc. are still regulated). Urban form features regulated under the SmartCode include the width of lots, size of blocks, building setbacks, building heights, placement of buildings on the lot, location of parking, etc.
Unified Land Development Regulation – The SmartCode is a unified land development code that can include zoning, subdivision regulations, urban design, signage, landscaping, and basic architectural standards.
Walkable Neighborhoods – One of the basic principles in the SmartCode is that towns and cities should be structured as a series of walkable neighborhoods. Walkable neighborhoods require a mix of land uses (residential, office, and retail), public spaces with a sense of enclosure to create “outdoor rooms”, and pedestrian-oriented transportation design.
Rural-Urban Transect – The zones within the SmartCode are designed to create complete human habitats ranging from the very rural to the very urban. Where conventional zoning categories are based on different land uses, SmartCode zoning categories are based on their rural-urban character. All categories within the SmartCode allow some mix of uses. SmartCode zoning categories ensure that a community offers a full diversity of building types, thoroughfare types, and civic space types, and that each has appropriate characteristics for its location.
Though version 9.0 is only 50 pages, the SmartCode may replace conventional zoning, subdivision, and design regulations, making walkable mixed-use development legal by right.
The first city to adopt a SmartCode as a mandatory overlay for its downtown was Petaluma, CA in June 2003. The City of Miami is currently going through the adoption process for an exclusive citywide SmartCode calibrated by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. Cities that have adopted SmartCodes as a parallel option to their conventional zoning include Gulfport, MS, Pass Christian, MS, and Montgomery, AL. In addition, scores of private traditional neighborhood developments (TND) have been permitted under transect-based codes that are essentially the same as Article 5 of the SmartCode.