New Urbanism and the SmartCode

By Buck Abbey, ASLA, LASN associate editor for ordinances

One concept of New Urbanism is making communities more within the human scale, such as Seaside?EUR??,,????'???s modest-size post office. If it looks vaguely familiar, Seaside, Fla. was the site for ?EUR??,,????'??The Truman Show,?EUR??,,????'?? a film starring Jim Carrey. New Urbanism has won numerous accolades. Prince Charles praised Seaside in a BBC series and in his book, A Vision for Britain. Witold Rybczynski, author of The Most Beautiful House in the World, compared Seaside?EUR??,,????'???s pleasing scale to Sienna, Italy. In 1990, Time said Seaside was ?EUR??,,????'??the most astounding design achievement of its era.?EUR??,,????'?? In 1995, Newsweek, in true hyberbole, called it ?EUR??,,????'??probably the most influential resort community since Versailles.?EUR??,,????'??

Such has been written about the New Urbanism in recent years. This is indeed a movement in zoning practice that is shaking traditional zoning to the core. In the Dec. 2006 issue of LASN (?EUR??,,????'??2007 Forecast?EUR??,,????'??) I wrote about the massive community rebuilding going on in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast and how it was influenced by New Urbanism; that building guides known as ?EUR??,,????'??pattern books?EUR??,,????'?? have been prepared to assist with this effort.

These tools, based upon the ?EUR??,,????'??SmartCode,?EUR??,,????'?? are helping devastated towns meet enhanced building codes and FEMA flood zone requirements. Code standards in the SmartCode set forth regionally significant building practices based upon New Urbanism principles set forth by the Congress for the New Urbanism and a transect-range based zoning theory as conceived by architect Andres Duany and others.

?EUR??,,????'??A new architecture and urban design movement had already gone mainstream, yet few architects that I new were even aware of it.?EUR??,,????'?? ?EUR??,,????'??+Peter Katz, The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, McGraw Hill Publishers

Even the work of this author with projects such as The Gabriel in Jefferson Parish (2001), the Townhomes of Sherwood (2007), Senior Housing of Central (2007) and Durham Place (2006)?EUR??,,????'??+all in Baton Rouge, La.?EUR??,,????'??+have been directly influenced by New Urbanism. Therefore, throughout 2007 this column will explore and bring to the reader thoughtful information about New Urbanism and the SmartCode that can be used in the design studio to build smarter neighborhood based communities.

The New Urbanism

There are several essential points about this innovative form of zoning to understand. First, it is based in part on zoning concepts developed in this country and the basic principles of urban design. New Urbanism, sometime called form-based zoning?EUR??,,????'??+because of its reliance upon small town design precepts?EUR??,,????'??+is to some extent a reaction to the suburbanization of the 1940s and 1950s.

Suburbanization has lead to car dominated ?EUR??,,????'??placeless?EUR??,,????'?? urban sprawl of the late twentieth century in which people live in neighborhoods but do not know their neighbors. New Urbanism stresses community design and comprehensive planning.

Secondly, conventional zoning was developed to divide and separate land uses by setting standings for the traditional urban zoning concerns of ?EUR??,,????'??use, set back, bulk, height and width.?EUR??,,????'?? Conventional zoning, sometimes called non-Euclidian zoning, is commonly displayed in the zoning map or zoning plan which is a plan view perspective where various use districts are laid out to reduce conflict and to set order to a community. The New Urbanism seeks to promote social togetherness and reinvestment in the city center. It also seeks to decrease separation based upon race, income and environmental deterioration all symptoms of zoning by use. New Urbanism zoning is based upon the SmartCode, which displays zoning in section view perspective that is called the Transect.

Form-based zoning places emphasis on the design of the region, city and town as well as the neighborhood, district, corridor and street. The block, the building and pedestrian-ism rather than car-ism are other central concerns of transect-based zoning.

New Urbanism, epitomized by Seaside, Fla. on the Gulf Coast, is sometimes called form-based zoning because it relies upon small town design precepts. To some extent it is a reaction to the suburbanization of the 1940s and 1950s. As commuters turn off of Seaside?EUR??,,????'???s main road, brick roads bordered with lush landscaping greet these weary travelers and must give them an immediate sense of tranquility and feeling of being home.

Code-Based Planning

There are several places to look to understand the principles of New Urbanism and transect-based zoning known as the SmartCode. They include The Charter of the New Urbanism (from The Congress for the New Urbanism) and the SmartCode, a product of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., architects from Miami, Florida. Information is available from placemakers.com and dpz.com. In addition, two excellent books have been published on the subject in recent years and they will be reviewed in this column later in the year. They include Peter Katz?EUR??,,????'???s insightful book The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, published by McGraw Hill (1993). This standard reference book on urban design principles scans the world of this new form of zoning thought and details some of the more noteworthy signatory new urbanist projects. Some of the noteworthy towns and neighborhoods include Seaside, Florida (1981); the town of Kentlands, Maryland (1988); Lake West, in Dallas, Texas (1981); and the reconstruction of Downcity, Providence, Rhode Island (1992).

A second resource, published in 2004 by the American Planning Association Planning Advisory Service, is Codifying New Urbanism (PAS 526). It should be on everyone?EUR??,,????'???s book list. The guide contains useful information on New Urbanist land development regulations. This document published with the support of the Congress for the New Urbanism will be reviewed in detail in this column at a later date.

New Urbanist Landscape Codes

Finally, out of fear that this discussion of zoning is making landscape architects nod off, this column cannot be finished without saying that future stories on New Urbanism will concentrate on the landscape provisions and articles of the SmartCode. These are the parts of New Urbanism that landscape architects must understand and may be working with in the years to come. You will be introduced to the concepts of ?EUR??,,????'??park, green, square, plaza and playground,?EUR??,,????'?? which collectively comprise a majority of the civic design standards contained in the SmartCode.

D.G. ?EUR??,,????'??Buck?EUR??,,????'?? Abbey, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University, is LASN?EUR??,,????'???s Associate Editor for Ordinances.