Form-based codes offer predictability

A form-based code (FBC) provides a more predictable built environment and the likelihood of more appealing public spaces with an identifiable character.

Form-coding regulates buildings with the goal of creating neighborhoods that support walking, bicycling, a mixture of uses, and community gathering places—qualities that are in demand today. 

Many communities are changing to FBCs, but regulatory change raises many concerns. This week an in the Boulder, Colorado, Daily Camera started off by saying: "The idea behind form-based code in Boulder is that the city would tell developers and architects what their buildings should look like."

The reality is not so simple. The FBC limits what a developer or architect can do, but so does conventional zoning. Many aspects of a FBC allow more freedom than conventional codes: 

1) The conventional code is far more restrictive on mixed-use, and uses in general, than a FBC.

2) The FBC often will allow more density. 

3) FBCs encourage a wider variety of building types than a conventional code. 

4) FBCs tend to allow faster entitlement. 

5) Conventional codes regulate building height, while FBC tends to regulate number of stories, which encourages more variety within an acceptable range. 

In exchange for that latitude, the FBC will restrict blank walls, parking lots on the street, or other pedestrian-unfriendly frontages that are often allowed in conventional codes. These restrictions add value and ensure that the landowner next door or across the street will be encouraged to build something that also supports that character. 

In Boulder, developers currently go through a torturous approval process whereby public officials wield a great deal of influence.

As the author stated: "Public officials have wide discretion to extract concessions from developers in exchange for "vague 'community benefit' for height, setback and density modifications." 

A FBC would make key design criteria clearer, so developers know what they have to do to gain approval. In exchange, some of the horse-trading with public officials would subside.

"My goal is to write a code that allows you to let go of some of that process," Leslie Oberholtzer of CodaMetrics said. "That is the purpose of form-based code. Even residents should be able to look at it and see that we're going to see these heights out here, but we also see these other design elements."

In considering a FBC, community leaders must weigh many issues specific to their localities. In general, form-based codes represents a different kind of regulation—one that is more transparent and predictable. 

Robert Steuteville is editor and executive director of Better Cities & Towns.