|
TMP Article:
Throwing Out the Old Rules
 “...In its place the ordinance substitutes a new system known as 'form-based zoning.'...”
What makes the new proposal so radical it its rejection of the basic assumption that has governed zoning rules since their birth in the early 20th century. The guiding idea of American zoning laws has always been separating uses. The big messy life of the American city would be scientifically dissected, and parts identified and each consigned to its own plot of ground. Housing, factories, offices and stores would cease to rub shoulders along crowded pedestrian streets. Each kind of endeavor was now given its own part of the city, which would later be described as a “pod.” From the beginning the segregation of uses was dependent on the automobile, which was soon to become absolutely necessary if you wanted to get from one pod to another.
To be fair, it is hard nowadays to imagine the stinking chaotic spectacle of the early industrial city. Factory smokestacks belched thick black smoke that created a perpetual twilight in surrounding neighborhoods and torrents of steaming fresh cow’s blood ran through the gutters down the street from the local slaughterhouse. Movie fans splattered with gore at screenings of Martin Scorsese’s urban epic Gangs of New York might be surprised to learn that the film’s gruesome portrayal of city life rarely strayed far from a base in historical fact.
Today, however the rationale for separating uses into detached pods seems increasingly outdated. Its hard to see how living close by a coffee shop or a law office would degrade most people’s quality of life. Even most small industrial enterprises might fit in comfortably in many neighborhoods, though the new rules do not go quite that far. Otherwise, the new zoning system proposed for the gathering place districts pretty much throws the whole idea of segregating uses out the window.
In its place the ordinance substitutes a new system known as “form-based zoning.”
Essentially, this means regulating the size, shape and organization of streets and buildings to create a walkable, transit-friendly collection of interconnected streets. The aim is to foster the development of a dense mix of housing and businesses. In the last decade a number of municipalities have adopted form-based zoning districts, from the Washington, DC suburb of Arlington Virginia to the quaint mountain town of Waynesville, North Carolina.
Charleston’s gathering place rules require that buildings be built to the edge of wide sidewalks and mandate shady street trees. On-street parking is required, while off-street parking is relegated to the rear of buildings. The rules specify no minimum lot sizes, no restrictions on density and no minimum parking requirements. They do require that buildings be more than one story along the street front and impose minimum frontage requirements to create a continuous street wall. Cul de sacs are discouraged in favor of grid-like street systems that disperse traffic away from bottlenecks.
If a gathering place district is larger than ten acres, 10% of the total area must be set aside for usable public spaces such as neighborhood greens, plazas and squares. Commercial corridor Design review, already in place in many areas, would review architectural and site plans to insure that individual buildings exhibit good urban design.
“If the ordinance is adopted,” Keane says, “the neighborhood district would be a by-right option that would have immediate application throughout the city. We could apply it to newly annexed areas as a condition of annexation. The gathering place district would need to go through another step, which would be its application to specific properties. There would be public hearings and other opportunities for public input as part of that process.”
Sites the City is considering for gathering places include Avondale Point in the Ashley Bridge District on Highway 17, the intersection of Folly Road and Maybank Highway at the northern tip of James Island, the intersection of Bee’s Ferry Road and the Glenn McConnell Parkway where a new super Walmart is planned, Upper King Street between Huger and Romney Streets in the vicinity of Rivers Middle School and the King’s Plaza shopping center, and the nearly empty Ashley Landing Shopping Center at the intersection of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and Old Town Road.
According to Keane, the gathering place idea “grew out of the new city plan that the Council adopted in 2000. We did a substantial survey of to find out what kinds of neighborhoods Charleston citizens wanted. We had about 4,000 people respond. The vast majority of people felt that a good neighborhood was one that was walkable and had a mix of uses and housing options. Regardless of where people actually lived, most people’s whole idea of a ‘neighborhood’ was about diverse communities not housing subdivisions.”
“As we worked on the plan, we began to talk about the need to restore old main streets like the Avondale Point area on Highway 17 and Riverland Terrace and the possibilities for creating new ones, particularly in the suburbs. We saw potential in some areas that we had overlooked before. For example, the South Windermere Shopping Center is not really an old main street, but it is a pleasantly scaled older shopping center that has revived. We wanted to protect areas that have worked well and maintained some character and sense of place. That inspired us to begin thinking of ways to create new areas that would give West Ashley, James Island and Johns Island places of distinction that residents could be proud of.”
“Of course, we also wanted new areas would also serve a function: places to gather, places that could support a transit stop. We wanted to improve transportation in the suburbs by connecting neighborhoods and building the kind of interconnected street network that is going to be necessary to solve some of the traffic problems.”
The ideas animating the gathering place initiative have already begun shaping City’s planning efforts. Planners have been designing schemes for the West Ashley Circle gathering place at Bee’s Ferry and Glenn McConnell for several years. In June of 2002, planners organized a public planning process to involve neighbors in the design of the proposed McCleod Village gathering place at Folly Road and Maybank. For a week, James Island residents mixed it up with city staff and consultants in the nearly abandoned Cross Creek shopping center trying to envision a way to revitalize the area. The plans they came up with included a traffic circle to ease congestion at the infamously panic-inducing intersection and a Main Street ambience in place of the empty parking lots. They also tried to explore ways in which the Village they were creating on shreds of drafting paper and napkins from McDonald’s might develop a symbiotic relationship with the adjacent McCleod Plantation, now owned by the Historic Charleston Foundation.
|
| |  |
|
