Form-Based Codes are composed of three key components: a regulating plan, development standards, and administration/definitions.
Regulating Plan
A map that “typically shows streets and public open spaces and designates the specific locations where the various building form standards will apply.” This plan is an “essential means for translating a vision or illustrative plan into place-specific development regulations.”[1] Regulating plans allows property owners to visualize the regulations. Form-based codes are designed for convenience and ease by using illustrations and simple diagrams throughout.
Development Standards (“Urban” or “Building Form” Standards)
These standards “typically include a broad set of requirements for the configuration, features, and function of buildings that define and shape the public realm, such as building placement and form, lot uses, parking, as well as allowed land uses, encroachments, and frontage and building types.”[2]
Development Standards regulate the “simple things,” like the distance a building should be from the sidewalk, minimum window area, height, accessibility of entrances, location of parking, etc.
Public Realm Standards
Referring to “those parts of the urban fabric that are held in common such as plazas, squares, parks, thoroughfares, and civic buildings.”[3] This is a central organizing principle because “it ties together the principles of walkable, interconnected aspects of a neighborhood, and the concern for how streets, lots, and buildings fit together.”1
Also called “Public Space Standards,” these standards “regulate not just individual streets, but also how streets interconnect and function as systems.” Effective Public Realm/Space Standards “create comfortable and useful spaces for many activities, including walking, bicycling, driving, public transit, and a community’s social life. They ensure that public space works for everyone, not just for the movement and storage of cars.”[4]
Administration
It is crucial that the Form-Based Code include a section that discusses “a clearly defined and streamlined application and project review process.”[5] This process allows for applications that have met all requirements to be approved administratively, rather than requiring a public hearing. “A definitions section is usually included because some of the terms used in a Form-Based Code may not typically be included in conventional zoning or subdivision regulations.”
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[1] Growth Management Fact Book (2022 Update) Prepared by National Association of REATLORS® Available at: realtorparty.realtor/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2022/09/GMFB2022.pdf
[2] Form-Based Codes: A Step-by-Step Guide for Communities (2013) Form-Based Codes Institute. Available at: https://formbasedcodes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CMAP- GuideforCommunities.pdf.
[3] The Lexicon of New Urbanism (2014) Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. Available at: https://www.dpz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Lexicon-2014.pdf.
[4] What are Form-Based Codes? Form-Based Codes Institute. Available at: https://formbasedcodes.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/What-Are-FBCs.pdf.
[5] Form-Based Codes Defined (2016) Form-Based Codes Institute. Available at: https://formbasedcodes.org/defintion/.
