Guest Post: Form-Based vs. Use-Based Zoning

Traditional zoning, known as Euclidian zoning, is based primarily upon regulating the separation of uses and establishing dimensional standards, such as building height and required setbacks. In 1926 when the Supreme Court of the United States in Village of Euclid, Ohio vs. Ambler Realty Co. determined that land use regulation via zoning was a legal use of police power, the rational was, in part, based upon protecting and preserving the health, safety and welfare of the public. Subsequently, most states granted the power of zoning to municipalities or counties through the enactment of enabling legislation. Planning and zoning commissions were established and empowered to create and enforce regulations designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. Although these commissions take a variety of forms, they are typically charged with the same rights and responsibilities. The breadth of the definition of "public health, safety and welfare" has expanded and been creatively massaged over the years to allow for regulations on maximum and minimum exterior lighting levels, types of landscaping buffers required between properties, maximum and minimum building heights, and parking requirements, to name only a few. 

Form-based zoning is based upon the regulation of how buildings relate to each other in the development and/or protection of the public realm. Unlike traditional zoning, regulations, which are text-based documents, form-based zoning relies upon diagrams and a regulating plan to illustrate regulations. Although form-based zoning recognizes the value of controlling uses, regulating the configuration of facades and their relationships to streets and other buildings is primary. Form-based codes offer predictable built results, public spaces that respect the human dimension over the automobile and provide an organizing method for spaces that seamlessly transition from undisturbed nature to the densest urban core. Form-based codes are not guidelines, they are regulatory. They are a land use tool they provides a framework for preservation and development. As with traditional zoning, there is no guarantee of the quality of development outcomes; that is determined by the design talent and the integrity of those implementing the code.

Zoning regulations are a powerful tool when it comes to determining how people, automobiles and buildings relate to each other. Zoning regulations can determine what uses are allowed, or not allowed, in different zones. They can also regulate how much parking is required, where that parking can be located, as well as where a building can be located.

There are limits to what zoning can regulate. Zoning regulations cannot regulate behavior, traffic on public streets, nor can they regulate aesthetics or style (aesthetics and style may be regulated through covenants, village districts and/or historic districts).

Large Scale Form-Based Zoning:

Smaller Scale Form-Based Zoning Regulates:

It is possible to have a portion of a municipality subject to form-based regulations and not others. 

There are many templates available for form-based codes. It is critical that these templates be calibrated to specific areas. Just as traditional zoning regulations are unique to each municipality, so should form-based regulations. 

The transect is the major organizing principal of form-based zoning. Transect zoning defines the intensity of development allowed in different areas of a development area. Transect zones range from 1-6. A Transect-1 (T-1) is the "preserve," which is simple nature without any intervention by humans. A T-2 zone is a "rural zone." This is marked by significant open space areas, agriculture uses and other uses that have very limited human intervention. A T-3 zone is a suburban area and is predominantly residential. A T-4 zone is a medium density neighborhood center that has a mix of residential and neighborhood scale commercial uses. Uses are often combined on a single parcel. A T-5 zone is an urban "Main Street" and a T-6 zone is a dense and intensively developed urban core. Special Districts such as Industrial and Manufacturing Zones are used to a limited extent to regulate development that does not conform to any of the T zones.

One of the critical tenants of form-based zoning is to have both sides of a street be the same zone. Providing balanced design elements creates a sense of completeness to a street. Therefore zone separation takes place down the middle of a block, not the middle of a street.

Form-based zoning can lay the foundation for improving sustainable development, increasing the property tax base and property values. Re-zoning Hamden's commercial corridors using transect zones has resulted in the possibility of an increase in buildable square footage from 300% to 2,200%. 

Incorporating a mix of housing opportunities by income, location and size along with retail and access to mass transportation options and open space, all available within walking distance (typically within ¼ to ½ mile) is the ideal configuration. What form that configuration takes is up to designers, public input and economic viability.