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The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

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  • 1.  Form-based coding

    Posted 06-19-2017 05:10 PM
    Austin Texas is undertaking a land development code rewrite that has resulted in a draft that will blanket older central neighborhoods that are already undergoing extensive demolition with new "form-based" rules that make almost every building non-conforming. I am wondering if other cities have undergone this type of rezoning and how it is working. I would also be interested in cities that have considered and rejected this option.

    Thanks,

    Karen McGraw AIA
    Karen McGraw Architect PLLC
    4315 Avenue C
    Austin, Texas 78751
    512-917-1761






  • 2.  RE: Form-based coding

    Posted 06-20-2017 09:48 PM

    Hi Karen

     

    In Sacramento we have a 'bulk ordinance' that was put into effect about ten years ago in response to some tear downs in older neighborhoods followed by massive and incompatible new homes built to the 'limit'.   

     

    Unfortunately one major factor in how these form based standards are crafted is:  'how easy is it going to be to check' – and that's why we now have a simple 'volume tent'.  Applying the rule is pretty easy – but it makes many existing older homes non-compliant as they stand, and additions and remodels often subject to expensive variance processes at best, and unworkable at worst. 

     

    There are some curious forms that are inadvertently being rewarded.  One is the clipped gable.  One day someone will be scratching their head wondering why so many Sacramentans fell in love with clipped gables in the mid 2010's

     

    To change even the few sentences of this ordinance once it's in place takes so much effort that it tends to keep getting kicked down the road – and of course as architects who are trying to survive in business we have to keep an eye on our customers and current projects, leaving little time or energy for reshaping our regulatory environments.  These kind of ordinaces seem increasingly popular; certainly the McMansion problem is real; the trick is in how one addresses the problem without incentivizing patterns that 'work with the code' but are simply bad design.  I'd like to hear about some examples of success in crafting these kinds of form based requirements.

     

    Cheers

    Mike

     

    Michael F. Malinowski FAIA

    President, Applied Architecture Inc

     

    President Streamline Institute Inc

    Contributing Editor California Buildings News

    2016 AIA California President

    2012-2014 AIA National Director

    2008 President AIA Central Valley

    2007 Chair Sacramento Development Oversight Commission

    2550 X Street Sacramento CA 95818

             Corner of 26th and X

    916 456 2656 voice   916 456 1050 fax

    mfm@appliedarts.net

    www.appliedarchitecture.net

    37 years of sensitive and sensible architectural solutions

    ü Please consider the environment before printing this email.

     






  • 3.  RE: Form-based coding

    Posted 06-21-2017 08:22 PM
    Michael,

    Thanks for replying. Austin actually crafted a McMansion ordinance 10 years ago and it works surprisingly well. I served on a Task Force and then on a commission to grant waivers for unintended consequences for 9 years. The regulations include a tent along with a carefully crafted FAR  limit including some exemptions for attics and basements. In the second year we tuned up the code and it started working much better such that our commission had fewer and fewer cases so we asked for it to be abolished a couple of years ago. 

    Austin's McMansion code is crafted in a way that encompasses most existing homes and does not result in a lot of non-conformances. Now that designers and review staff are used to it they are realizing it is more flexible than the new form-based proposal.

    You are right that once this is adopted it is very difficult to get it improved or changed. There is always civic work to do!

    Thanks,

    Karen McGraw AIA
    Karen McGraw Architect PLLC
    4315 Avenue C
    Austin, Texas 78751
    512-917-1761









  • 4.  RE: Form-based coding

    Posted 06-22-2017 07:20 PM

    None of these form based codes have actually " saved " any neighborhoods.

    They just create an artificially expensive neighborhood of low density that limits needed housing and services for other groups that can't afford a single family house on a large piece of land.

    All inner city neighborhoods have pressure to evolve, as that is the basic and historic nature of cities and their growth.

    As architects, we should be looking at how we can accommodate the growing  populations with safe, affordable, livable housing within reach of transit options, work options and open space.

    Instead many architects are buying into the "save at all costs" every single family house and tree in a desperate attempt to "stop growth" by maintaining what has always been in a neighborhoods, instead of looking at what "should or needs " to be built to accommodate a new population. Ironically some of the population being shut out are our own kids and grandchildren.

    That Austin and other cities have used a  "tent " to dictate an artificial  maximum shape , height and area that perpetuates a single family neighborhood is a real component of the affordability problem Austin shares with other cities.

    These limitations only "work" for those who want to limit development to maintain their single family neighborhoods to the detriment of all other populations, whether they are  lower income, minority or young.

    They perpetuate suburban sprawl at a time when many of the city's population would prefer to live in urban areas, close to work and services, but now find those close-in neighborhoods occupied by "NIMBYS" intent on adding expensive regulation after expensive regulation to any housing or redevelopment that can get built.

    San Francisco should be a cautionary tale for any urban designer.

     

    Betty J Trent, AIA LEED AP

    Austin TX

     

          

     

     

     

     






  • 5.  RE: Form-based coding

    Posted 06-21-2017 06:46 AM
    Hi Karen - this "hybrid" zoning code appears to be a top-down application, applying form-based code to some neighborhoods and not to others, and ignores the fact that some neighborhoods, such as Heritage in Austin, have had a neighborhood plan for quite some time, approved by the city, that already addresses density and affordability in a sensible and knowing way. For those of you not familiar with the area, it is squeezed in between the University of Texas and a major, expanding hospital, with many historic homes. In fact the neighborhood already has a large amount of affordable housing, which this zoning proposal, based upon tax assessor land values, will inevitably do away with. The city and consultants are using the argument that the appraised land values are too high for the existing structures, i.e. one and two story older (but very well kept) homes.  It is clearly a mismatch between highly paid consultants, and actual conditions on the ground, about which they appear to be unknowledgeable. it is a typical case of "killing the goose that laid the golden egg" - in other words destroying the very fabric, historic neighborhoods and mature trees, that everyone associates with Austin. We are under constant assault as homeowners. I regret the huge amount of funding that has been put into this effort with very little community input.

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    Robin Abrams, Ph.D., FAIA, ASLA
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  • 6.  RE: Form-based coding

    Posted 06-22-2017 06:12 PM
    Zoning Ordinances and other regulatory frameworks only guarantee a minimum (low bar or threshold) response from most projects. Form Based Codes have the potential to inform the relationship of buildings to one another and the public realm, but rarely if ever deliver "good design" and in my experience are typically not well suited to infill, replacement projects or historic neighborhoods.   I have served for nearly twenty years on the City of Alamo Heights Architectural Review Board and can count on one hand the number of projects where the literal response to our zoning ordinances and Residential Design Guidelines could be applauded. The RDG's were promulgated in response to citizen outcry over teardowns and McMansions. The best and most respectful projects over the years have been done by sensitive owners, good architects or developers who have listened to both neighbors and the ARB who in the majority of cases have been backed up by city council. When I was chair of the ARB I found that my experience as an architect was most useful when I first considered what a homeowner desired outcome was and offered constructive criticism and suggestions as how to get there. I have never been afraid to tell developers or straw buyers/owners that the very things that make our community desireable are the things that they are destroying....scale, trees, views, happy neighbors, etc.  No denying that the process is political in its nature and eventually and civil and professional discourse is needed. Righting the rules. regardless of type....is one step. Administering them form a staff and public citizens' review is where the rubber meets the road. Set expectations, both literal and figurative, high and then hold everyone accountable.

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    Mike McGlone AIA
    Alamo Architects
    San Antonio TX
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