Table of Contents

Form-Based Zoning

The city’s zoning code is a mapped mandatory form-based code. It includes fourteen form districts all with different permissible land uses, form standards, building frontage types, façade design standards, parking standards, and landscaping standards.

Zoning Reform and Code Writing

The city adopted a new zoning code in 2010. It includes a mix of use-based and form-based zoning standards. It also includes a mix of transect-based and conventional zoning districts. It defines and regulates uses based on broad categories, with select specific use types, and includes use-specific standards to minimize reliance on discretionary use permits. And it includes building form standards for each zoning district. It is richly illustrated and uses tables to organize use permissions and dimensional standards.

Its intent statements address preserving neighborhoods, historic resources, and the natural environment; applying the theory of the transect to create appropriate development transitions; increasing access to the natural environment; conserving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions; increasing tree canopy; encouraging green buildings; maintaining the future growth capacity of the city’s core; rebuilding commercial corridors; ensuring that private development expands infrastructure and contributes to a pedestrian-friendly environment; and establishing a rational pattern of successional growth (§2.1.7).