APA, Brookings Panel Sparks Debate on Zoning Reform

By Stuart Meck, FAICP

The direction that 21st century zoning practice should take was the subject of a day-long conference in Chicago on January 17, 2003. The conference was sponsored by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and the American Planning Association.

Nearly 100 participants heard panelists discuss the history of zoning, debate opportunities for zoning reform, and report on new approaches from Chicago, Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, and Nashville-Davidson County.

The central theme was whether conventional zoning ordinances that regulate use, height, and bulk should be replaced by form-based codes that are more prescriptive as to classes of building type and bulk, but broadly permissive as to use. Proponents for this approach maintained that form-based codes were particularly relevant to central cities experiencing infill development that must fit in the context of existing neighborhoods, though are also applicable to suburbs.

Form-based ordinances, argued APA Executive Director Paul Farmer, AICP, are nothing new. In contrast to the single map and zoning ordinance text commonplace today, the 1916 New York City zoning ordinance, the first code in the nation, employed a three-map system, with one map for use, a second for height, and a third for bulk. The New York code was particularly sensitive to the construction of towers, and the need for sunlight to penetrate urban canyons. The fact that there is renewed interest in such approaches, Farmer maintained, shows that "many of the issues that we struggle with today are ones that we struggled with in the early days of zoning."

But Farmer reminded the audience that zoning is still a form of social control, and it can have a dark side. Not only does it influence the design of buildings, but it also affects who can live in them and the economic makeup of the community. Since the 1920s, communities have developed discretionary approval processes, he said, that make it difficult to establish group homes, co-housing, and single-room occupancy apartments. These processes "unnecessarily open up opportunities for legal intervention" to block such housing. If communities want more compact living environments with more diverse housing, he said, "we should make it easy to bring about what we want and hard to bring about what we don't want." Under that theory, single-family homes should be made conditional uses. Farmer questioned whether form-based ordinances would result in more affordable housing and increased social equity.

Peter Park, the planning director of Milwaukee, and Kirk Bishop, a Chicago planning consultant, gave progress reports on updating the Milwaukee and Chicago zoning codes. Park said the Milwaukee code was hard to understand and use. Moreover, the code's standards disregarded existing development patterns, creating numerous nonconformities for uses, area requirements, and building setbacks. As a consequence, most development required a variance from the city's board of zoning appeals, a process that could take as long as 28 weeks for a decision. The code update resulted in more extensive use of tables and graphics to replace legalese, a substantial reduction in the number of use districts, and design standards that related to desired neighborhood character.

In Chicago, the code revision is still underway, said Bishop, but clear priorities have emerged in the rewrite of the zoning ordinance, which dates from 1957. Use districts don't match neighborhood character, he said, and the code seems to stress "concrete and cars instead of yards." This results in new development that is "hostile to pedestrians" — frequent driveway cuts that block sidewalks with vehicles and lengthy blank walls facing streets that obliterate pedestrian-friendly character.

Chicago's high-density districts are far too permissive, Bishop said, reflecting the 1957 belief that the city would need to accommodate a much greater population than it does today. One consequence of current regulations is that they allow the construction of "battleship" apartments that are out of sync with existing development and encroach on rear yards.

The new code, Bishop said, will emphasize retaining front and rear yards as true green open spaces rather than areas to be paved for parking or excavated and fenced off for sunken "patio pits." Like Milwaukee, Chicago is reducing the number of use districts, and is drafting special regulations to enhance 27 pedestrian shopping streets in the city and eight "classic" Chicago intersections.

"We are focusing on form and urban design," said Tom Smith, Chicago's assistant commissioner for planning and development, "because we want to differentiate our environment from the suburbs."

Planning consultants Peter Katz and Geoffrey Ferrell introduced their own proposal for a form-based code. Under their proposal, the zoning ordinance and map would specify different types of building forms in varying configurations of bulk and height. The form of the building would dominate over the management of uses, through parking regulations, sign controls, and other specifications, and the use itself. Katz said this approach would "delink use and building type," allowing buildings to be used for different uses over time and provide for a diversity of uses, especially housing, within a block Their form-based regulations "don't try to code everything, just what's important." An example, said Katz, was the use of stoops, which in townhouses allows the living space to be elevated above the street and separates residential activity from street activity, giving the occupants privacy.

Architect and town planner Andres Duany, AICP, advocated adopting an "transect-based" code that could be used in tandem with conventional zoning ordinances. Under the transect-based code, varying sets of prescriptive development standards apply to six different transects or gradients of development emanating from the central city core. The transect approach encourages the creation of distinct "immersive" living and working environment for each point along the continuum. Current zoning codes, said Duany, yield suburban sprawl, a pattern consisting of "disconnection and monoculture" of uses.

"The only way we can keep America from sprawling," Duany declared, "is to build cities Americans love." In response to questions about density, Duany predicted that the urbanism of the 21st century "will be five to eight [dwelling] units per acre gross."

Rick Bernhardt, FAICP, the executive director of the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County planning department, reported on his efforts to graft a transect-based code onto a 1999 revision of the zoning ordinance. Because the existing ordinance was so new, Bernhardt felt it was unrealistic to replace the entire document. Instead, his planning staff worked to create a series of detailed neighborhood plans for both developed and undeveloped areas upon which form-based codes could be developed as an alternative. Once such codes were in place, Bernhardt said, developers had the option of using either code, with development under the form-based code being allowed as-of-right under a "traditional neighborhood development district." The key was the formulation of a plan, he said. "If you have a plan, you can use the district."

Planner Lane Kendig disputed Duany's presentation and form-based zoning in general. Form-based zoning is put forth as the only solution to land use problems, rejecting suburban and rural character in favor of advancing an urban solution nearly everywhere, he stated.

Kendig responded to criticisms concerning the spread of "big box" retailing by Duany, who claimed that it was a direct result of hierarchical or "dendritic" street systems in the suburbs that are necessary to support big boxes. Kendig said form-based zoning "ignores the economics of modern society," which included economies of scale and job-home relationships. "Big boxes are a response to economic forces and consumer demand." Kendig maintained that, despite Duany's statement that his approach must embrace an "environmental ethos," form-based zoning was "environmentally insensitive," employing grids or road designs that ignore environmental features or topography.

Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution, thanked the speakers and the audience for "an extraordinary level of intellectual engagement" at the conference.

Perhaps the day was summed up best by Jonathan Barnett, FAICP, an urban designer and professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania, who wondered, "If we get what we ask for, then why don't we get want we want?"

Stuart Meck is a senior research fellow at the American Planning Association.

Images: Top — Planning consultant James Duncan, FAICP (left), and Chris Nelson, FAICP, professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech. Middle — Emily Talen, assistant professor of urban and regional planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (left), and Elinor Bacon, principal, Elinor Bacon. Bottom — Andres Duany, AICP, architect and town planner (left) with planning consultant Lane Kendig. Photos by Stuart Meck, FAICP.