Guess I'll wait to get a more complete plan before deciding whether this is going to help things or not. From the Ithaca Times online:
City of Ithaca moves forward with form-based zoning
Posted: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 12:00 am
By Erin Barrett
The City of Ithaca zoning code is onerous and outdated. According to Phyllis Radke, director of zoning administration, the current code grew out of a format initially developed in 1943 and has been amended so often that the supplementary regulations section is now the largest of the entire ordinance. The overall document, she said, has numerous inconsistencies and lacks clarity.
Three projects are underway to revise, clarify, or replace the current zoning code. The first project is the rewrite of the ordinance, undertaken by Radke and the Zoning Working Group. The goals of the zoning rewrite are to assist the development process; replace outdated regulations; allow for design standards to be added to zoning districts at a later date; create a readable document; and correct existing errors.
According to JoAnn Cornish, director of planning, “The rewrite of the zoning ordinance will focus on correcting textual errors, updating practices, and adding text for clarity, and/or adding text to improve the regulations and enforceability of the zoning requirements. It is not meant to completely change the current Euclidian-type zoning approach, but to make the format of the ordinance conducive to adding design standards or guidelines for the use districts, over time.”
At the same time, the planning department is preparing to roll out the revised Collegetown Area Form Districts. The Collegetown districts are a hybrid of Euclidian and form-based zoning. The revised districts will be presented to a workshop of building division staff, before moving on to a special session of the Common Council. Once approved by Common Council the form districts will be presented at a neighborhood meeting to residents and property owners of Collegetown and the Belle Sherman and Bryant Park neighborhoods.
Noah Demarest, of Stream Collaborative, an architecture and landscape architecture firm, is working on the third project, developing a uniform form-based zoning ordinance for both the City and Town of Ithaca.
The city’s current Euclidian zoning divides an area into districts and defines permitted uses and standards for each district. Any use not permitted in a district by the ordinance, such as a proposed coffee shop in a zoned residential district, requires a use variance.
Form-based ordinances have fewer zones, typically six expanding circular zones, which start at the urban core and move out to agriculture areas. These zones are primarily based on density, however. Within each zone neighborhood character is decided individually.
“A major component of the form-based code is walkability, encouraging development to happen either closer to downtown cores or in existing neighborhoods” explained Demarest, “or if it’s done in new development, to do it in clusters; it’s the reverse of sprawl. Any house should be within a ten-minute walk of either existing services, stores, or transportation and employment.”
“The ‘form’ aspect is not about architectural details,” explained Demarest, “but more about their disposition on the site.” Rather than dictate what architectural elements new development should include, form-based zoning stipulates where it should sit in the lot, how much of the lot can be developed and how high the development can rise. He cites the Fall Creek neighborhood as an example, “The current zoning is very suburban in character, with larger push-backs. Currently even in Fall Creek it is illegal to build a house up to the street. The porches right on the street are part of what makes the neighborhood so unique.”
Demarest, who has worked with developers in the city and the town, believes a uniform code for both municipalities would clarify zoning for residents and developers. Form-based zoning would also clarify the intent of zoning, making it clear what types of developments are encouraged.
Demarest received a Tompkins County grant to complete a demonstration study of form-based zoning for the city and town, with the consent of Town of Ithaca supervisor Herb Engman and city mayor Svante Myrick. “We took an area in the inlet valley and applied the code to that area as phase one of the study, the next phase would be to take what we’ve done and apply it to the city.”
Phase two of the project will be spearheaded by Robert Steuteville, of Better! Cities & Towns, Inc. who recently applied for a Cleaner Greener Communities grant to take form-based zoning in Ithaca to the next level. According to Demarest, the $400,000 grant, if received, would be used for education, outreach, drafting language of code, and working with neighborhood groups to define the variations in the form-based ordinance.
“This is about options, not about demanding a certain level of density or saying what you can’t do. It’s about creating options that allow certain things to happen that have always happened,” said Demarest, “a lot of the neighborhoods that we love were built when there was no zoning so we’re trying to undo some of the wrongs of the current code.”
For more information on current city zoning visit:
www.cityofithaca.org
Here's the link:
http://www.ithaca.com/news/city-of-i...a4bcf887a.html