Community Character

Generally

Most contentious zoning hearings involve disputes over the impact of a proposed development on the character of the neighborhood or community as a whole. However, too often, the local government's land development regulations do not deal with community character. Therefore, there is often no certainty with respect to the character of new development or redevelopment, and there is often little legal basis to deny a proposed project based on its impacts on community character alone.

KKC developed the community character approach to regulation as an adjunct to the conventional use- and density-based land use system. The system is based on quantifiable measures that allow a way to effectively plan and zone a community and evaluate the real impacts of development on the natural and built environments. Whereas a conventional approach groups and segregates uses according to similar use types and gross densities or intensities, the community character approach relates to the physical design traits that form the character of development, without necessarily dictating the design of individual buildings.

How the Approach Works

Community character defines classes of uses and development patterns as urban, sub-urban, and rural. These classes are further delineated into design types. The design types are unique to each community, but generally include urban core, urban, and auto-urban within the urban class; suburban and estate within the suburban class; and countryside, agricultural, and natural within the rural class. By organizing development according to its character, design strategies may be formed and measures established to assure acceptable outcomes.

Rather than dictate precise design standards for the form of development, the community character approach uses performance measures such as ratios of open space, impervious surface, and floor area to set appropriate bounds that ensure that the development fits into the fabric of the community. Since these tools are measurable, the future character of an area (and its infrastructure impacts) can be planned for and realized. Bufferyard treatments may be calibrated to the intensity of development, or differences between the intensities of neighboring development, ensuring standards that are commensurate with the degree of perceived incompatibility between uses or districts.

The character-based system improves the community's understanding about the impacts of future development. Measurements can be applied to estimate rates of trip generation, population and housing unit counts, numbers of school children, demands for neighborhood and community parks, runoff volumes, and others, which allow simplified regulatory implementation of advanced planning and design considerations.

For example, indicating an area as single-family or low- to moderate-density residential does little to gauge the level of impact on adjacent properties or the required infrastructure capacities. However, an indication as suburban residential provides assurance as to the allowable density, degree of required open space, necessary buffering, and likely infrastructure impacts.

BACK TO TOP