SmartCode
Background
The SmartCode is a unified land development ordinance template for planning and urban design. It folds zoning, subdivision regulations, urban design, and basic architectural standards into one compact document. Because the SmartCode enables community vision by coding specific outcomes that are desired in particular places, it is meant to be locally calibrated by professional planners, architects, and attorneys.
Important: The SmartCode is not a building code. Building codes address life/safety issues such as fire and storm protection. Examples of building codes include the International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), and International Code Council (ICC) documents.
In the discussion of Smart Growth as an alternative to urban sprawl, one key aspect often overlooked is the currently prevailing system of community development codes and standards that by design, whether intentionally or not, have promoted subdivisions and strip malls. To change these community settlement patterns to allow for land conservation and to promote traditional patterns of hamlet, village, town and city, new codes are necessary. The most comprehensive example of a code designed 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 across the full spectrum of human settlement, from the most rural to the most urban, incorporating a transect of character and intensity within each. The SmartCode was originally developed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.
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, California in June 2003. The City of Miami is currently going through the adoption process for an exclusive citywide SmartCode calibrated by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. Cities that have adopted SmartCodes as a parallel option to their conventional zoning include Gulfport, Mississippi, Pass Christian, Mississippi, and Montgomery, Alabama. 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.
The SmartCode also includes additional supplementary “modules” with specialized techniques. The SmartCode Sustainability Module was introduced by Jaime Correa from Jaime Correa and Associates, in the City of Miami; the SmartCode Light Imprint and Drainage Module was designed by Tom Low at the Charlotte office of Duany and Plater-Zyberk; the Environmental Standards Module has been produced by Doug Farr, in Chicago. Other Modules include: Natural Drainage Standards, architecture/lighting/sound and visibility and Hazard Mitigation Standards.
External links
SmartCode Resources and Education
A Few of the Calibrated SmartCodes
- Miami, FL
- Taos, NM
- Petaluma, CA
- Post Falls, ID
- Leander, TX
- Full list of SmartCode adopted and in process
SmartCode Providers
The Town of South Fork, Colorado, is the FIRST municipality in Colorado to adopt a SmartCode into its Land Use Code for its’ new 140 acre Wharton Town Center.
The SmartCode is a tool that guides the form of the built environment to resemble that of traditional neighborhoods, towns and villages that are loved throughout the world for their sense of place and livability. This form is compact, walkable/pedestrian friendly, mixed use, and is meant to be comfortable, safe, and ecologically sustainable. It allows for mixed uses within a neighborhood so its’ residents don’t have to drive everywhere. Civic beauty and public amenities are planned and required throughout the neighborhood to create a sense of place and celebrate its’ unique characteristics.
The Wharton Town Center includes a Sante Fe style square anchoring the center of the neighborhood with retail and civic frontages. It also includes riverfront mixed use streets along the Rio Grande River where retail, restaurants, lofts and offices will have the dual benefit of a walkable street with a comfortable sense of place and beautiful frontage to a public riverfront park. The Wharton plan capitalizes on public access to the scenic Rio Grande River and connectivity to the world class Rio Grande Golf Club.
South Fork has focused its planning on the principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism to provide economic, social and environmental sustainability. The Town has altered its’ approach from the recent planning trends of impact fees, long drawn out entitlement processes and an environment of investment uncertainty to a streamlined approval processes that removes ambiguity and offers developers, who are advocates of the SmartCode, valuable density incentives for contributing to and investing in the overall Town Center plan.
With its’ recent adoption of the SmartCode, coupled with its’ magnificent natural beauty and proximity to world class skiing, fishing, golfing and countless other outdoor activities, South Fork is poised to position itself as the best place to invest, the best place to live, the best access to recreation and the best place to work in the San Luis Valley.
If you’re interested in learning more about South Fork and the SmartCode, call 719-873-0152
Urbanism Resources