Bradenton ‘forming’ new land codes

BRADENTON — Many of today’s city planners are taking a lesson from the past to plan for the future redevelopment of urban areas.

These “New Urbanists,” as they are called, want to create sustainable downtowns where people live, work, shop and play.

The Bradenton City Council will take a step towards encouraging developers to embrace the new urbanism concept when they hear from four urban planning consultant firms this week.

Through the guidance of Tim Polk, the city’s director of planning and community development department, the City Council decided to switch from a traditional land development code to a form-based code for those portions of the city that the Downtown Development Authority covers, plus the Point Pleasant neighborhood.

“With form-based codes, we will be able to make sure redevelopment is more predictable,” said Polk. “Form-based codes get more specific of what we want to see and eliminates a lot of guess work for developers.”

Form-base codes are a relatively new planning concept, replacing the Euclidian zoning codes that most cities and counties in the United States have been using for more than 100 years to direct how their communities are developed.

Unlike zoning laws, form-based codes give developers a predictable result of what can be built on a specific plot of land, using a code that dictates physical form rather than what is not permitted on the property.

“They (form-based codes) are regulatory tools,” said Trent Green, director of the University of South Florida’s Urban and Economic Design program. “They’re just a zoning alternative to define the planned environment.”

Form-based codes usually consist of a regulatory plan, building form standards, site development standards, and sometimes sign and architectural standards.

The codes not only describe the standards with words, but also use many illustrations and charts, outlining various possibilities permitted on a specific lot or within a defined district.

Green, who is an architect and urban designer, said form-based codes encourage mixed-use development, where storefront retail shops line a walkable streetscape, with living quarters or offices located above the shops.

Old Main Street in Bradenton, developed in the 1920s, is a example of a mixed-use area. Also, the new urbanism trend promotes more residential units in the downtown core, but in the form of townhouses or high-rises and not the single-family houses on large lots found in the suburbs, Green said.

Before the Euclidian zoning laws were established, there were few regulations on where different types of buildings and businesses could be located in a city.

With the adoption of zoning laws in the early 1900s residential neighborhoods were separated from industrial and commercial areas. Along with the building of wider roads out of the city, this eventually lead to the development suburbs and urban sprawl.

Higher fuel and land costs have encouraged planners to look at redeveloping downtowns as livable places.

More than three years ago city officials conducted a community exercise called Downtown by Design to ascertain how residents want their urban core to develop.

Those participating in developing the master plan said they wanted a downtown environment where people “live, work, shop and play in an area that is safe, walkable and convenient.”

To achieve this goal the plan recognized a need for a change in thinking on how to encourage development in the urban core, said city planner Polk.

“Form-based codes put design ahead of land use,” he said. “The Euclidian zoning laws does the opposite.”

After a consultant is chosen, several workshops to gather public input will be held during the writing of the specific codes.