Form-based codes: An overview of the literature

Urban form, sustainability, community vision, place specificity, code document clarity, and efficiency of the development process are identified as the essential themes behind form-based codes by Evan Evangelopoulos and Cornelius Nurworsoo. The authors note the need to develop measurable parameters to better study these themes and understand the impact of form-based codes in their effort to reform US cities and move them away from Euclidian zoning. Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus Part of the Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons This Faculty and Student Work is brought to you for free and open access by the City and Regional Planning at DigitalCommons@CalPoly. It has been accepted for inclusion in Focus by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CalPoly. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Evangelopoulos, Evan and Nuworsoo, Cornelius (2016) "Form-based codes: An overview of the literature," Focus: Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 17. Available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus/vol13/iss1/17 FOCUS 13 Student and Faculty Work Urban form, sustainability, community vision, place specificity, code document clarity, and efficiency of the development process are identified as the essential themes behind form-based codes by Evan Evangelopoulos and Cornelius Nurworsoo. The authors note the need to develop measurable parameters to better study these themes and understand the impact of form-based codes in their effort to reform US cities and move them away from Euclidian zoning. Evan Evangelopoulos MCRP, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, MLA (KSU); Associate Planner, County of San Bernardino. Form-Based Codes: An Overview of the Literature Cornelius Nuworsoo PhD, AICP; Professor, City and Regional Planning Department, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Form-based codes represent an attempt to reform zoning regulations in the US and respond to inefficiencies of traditional Euclidean zoning. This paper presents form-based codes as a set of archetypal themes which create a framework within which to address prevalent criticism, delineate better code assessment criteria, and evolve the form-based code zoning paradigm. Towards this goal, the paper summarizes the reasons behind form-based codes by reviewing foundational form-based code authors and topics. We identified six themes as essential to form-based codes: urban form, sustainability, community vision, place specificity, code document clarity, and efficiency of the development process. This paper concludes that topics of form-based code criticism can fit within the six themes, but evaluating criteria do not address place specificity. It is argued that each theme needs to be separately researched and equipped with measurable parameters to better address and advance form-based code intentions and the overall effort to reform cities in the US.