Miami approves form-based code

Largest US city to do so

Steve Hawley, Nov 04, 09.

Miami recently switched from zoning to form-based code, becoming the largest US city to do so, according to Next American City. The article notes that form-based code makes it much easier to build walkable urban areas, while conventional zoning can make that difficult or even impossible. The Miami City Commission voted 4-1 in favor of form-based code.

The article notes:

Earlier in the decade a phenomenal building boom quickly revealed that Miami’s existing zoning code could erode, not contribute to the city’s health and quality of life. Frustrated and concerned that such investment in the city’s urban core may not reach its full potential, Mayor Manny Diaz boldly asked city officials to throw out the city’s use-based, auto-centric zoning code and replace it with a form-based code. Building from the SmartCode, a model form-based code, Diaz sought regulations that mandated a highly walkable, transit-oriented, and sensitive urban form for the rapidly developing city. In doing so, Diaz set out to codify smart growth at an unprecedented scale.

Next American City says that Miami’s adoption of form-based code may be a “watershed moment in America’s urban history.” It adds that Denver is expected to follow Miami’s example and adopt a form-based code within a few months. And as more cities are turning to form-based codes and walkable urbanism, federal programs are evolving as well to support these changes.

An email from the New Urban News says that the code - called Miami 21 - took more than four years to develop and involved hundreds of public meetings. It says that while about 40 cities have applied the SmartCode to parts of their jurisdictions, Miami is just the second to adopt it citywide. The first was Pass Christian, Mississippi, which adopted the rules after the city was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Miami 21 website