SmartCode comes to New England

New Urban News Article with tables, 12/1/2007

Jamestown, Rhode Island, and Hamden, Connecticut, could be the first two New England communities to adopt the SmartCode. New urbanist teams conducted charrettes in both towns this fall, with the aim of adapting the form-based code to strikingly different local concerns.

The SmartCode arrival in New England is emblematic of how the code has reached far and wide recently. In the nearly five years since the first edition of the SmartCode was produced by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ), customized versions of the code have been adopted by 15 localities in nine states (see table at right). Adoption is currently in process in more than 50 other municipalities and counties in the US, including Jamestown and Hamden. Outside the US, the SmartCode is in process in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada, and Bran, Romania. Other Transect-based codes have been adopted by other governments.

In Jamestown, a rural island town of 5,600 people in Narragansett Bay, charrette participants led by Donald Powers Architects concentrated in mid-October on how to enlarge the supply of affordable housing. As might be expected of a beautiful location within commuting distance of both Providence and Newport, little of Jamestown’s current housing stock is considered affordable. “There are few houses for sale under $500,000,” said Sandy Sorlien, whose firm SmartCode Local participated in the charrette along with Cornish Associates and New Commons, both based in Providence.