What is Form-Based Zoning?
Form-Based Codes are “A land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code. A form-based code is a regulation, not a mere guideline, adopted into the city, town, or county law. A form-based code offers a powerful alternative to conventional zoning regulation.[1]
Rather than focusing on what uses are permitted in a specific area, Form-Based Codes focus on the physical characteristic of developments, taking into consideration the relationship with the public realm. (Form Based Codes: A Step-by-Step Guide for Communities). These codes “seek to restore time-tested forms of urbanism. They give unity, efficient organization, social vitality, and walkability to our cities, towns, and neighborhoods.”[2]
“Form-Based Codes offer a new way of thinking about development regulation and helping communities holistically shape their futures. They help to achieve desired urban forms, such as vital centers supportive of businesses both big and small, neighborhoods and streets that are safe and attractive for walking and bicycling, preservation of community history, and protection of the environment.”2
How is Form-Based Zoning different from Conventional Zoning?
Conventional Zoning is a system that was “devised to prevent undesirable juxtapositions, like factories next to homes, and incompatible scales of development.2 Conventional zoning “arose out of the need to protect public health, safety, and welfare by preventing the most negative impacts of siting, size, and use of buildings,” “protect property values by separating incompatible uses in a particular area or district” usually achieved by “creating single- or limited-use zones that segregate different land uses.”[3]
Form Based Zoning is “a method of development regulation, adopted into municipal or county law, which is concerned with “the physical character of development (its form) and includes – but often de-emphasizes – the regulation of land use.”3 Form-based codes focus on the relationship of the development with the community, “especially the relationships between buildings and the street, pedestrians and vehicles, and public and private spaces.”
Form-Based codes offer communities the ability to create the development they want and gives developers a better understanding of the community desires. One major benefit of utilizing Form-Based Code is the code can be customized for each city; there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach.
| CONVENTIONAL ZONING | FORM-BASED ZONING |
| Separates uses; residential, industrial, etc. | Encourages mix of land-use. |
| Promotes high-density development, limited housing choices. | Promotes a mix of housing types. |
| Encourages excessive land consumption and automobile dependency. | Focuses on what the community wants, not what they dislike. |
| Focuses on uses that are not allowed. | Public design process. |
| “One-size-fits-all” approach. | Tailors’ requirements to fit in with the neighborhood characteristics and local architecture. |
| Uses regulations that can shape development in ways that are difficult to visualize, encourages developers to “max out” the massing of a building within the allowed limits. | Emphasizes site design and building form. |
| Regulates private development, but not the design or character. | Address design of the public realm and importance of streetscape design.
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| Information provided is concise, short, and emphasizes illustrations rather than text. |
Based on information provided by the Form Based Codes: A Step-by-Step Guide for Communities.
[1] National Association of REALTORS® Growth Management Fact Book: 2022 Update. Robinson & Cole LLP, 2022.
[2] Form-Based Codes Institute Introducing Form-Based Codes: What are Form-Based Codes?
[3] Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Form-Based Coes: A Step-by-Step Guide for Communities. 2013
