Arlington may choose a larger area for its trial run of form-based code than the originally proposed pilot areas.
The city council was told Tuesday that following discussions with consultants, city staff have decided to propose a larger area that includes downtown and parts of Abram Street and Division Street to the west.
Form-based code is an alternative to traditional zoning focusing on theme more than use. The city would still be able to place restrictions on use.
Richard Gertson, assistant director of planning and development services for the city, said the now-proposed area was built around Downtown Arlington and expanded to some surrounding neighborhoods.
“We are including the environs that will have an influence on the downtown area and provide some level of synergy for that area,” Gertson said.
Council members and experts told KERA News it’s possible to see results from form-based code almost immediately, but most expect it to take five to 10 years to see the full success of the pilot program.
Form-based code often encourages more coherence in architecture, easier development standards, more community input on developments and increased foot traffic in the area and in businesses.
Council members shared some concerns about the proposed pilot area at a work session Tuesday, but none expressed opposition to the effort as a whole.
The latest proposed area extends further west down East Abram Street and slightly north along North Collins Street to Truman Circle.
The new area includes portions of pilot areas in both councilmembers Mauricio Galante and Rebecca Boxall’s districts.
Galante, who represents District 1, lobbied for form-based code to be introduced along a stretch of Division Street. He told KERA news he had hopes of reviving a portion of the street to pay homage to the Bankhead Highway, the first trans-continental all-weather highway in the United States.
Boxall, the councilmember for District 5, said she wanted to foster walkable connections between downtown, the entertainment district and downtown by introducing form-based code just south of that.
The original proposed pilot area she wanted to see approved in her district stretched down a portion of East Abram Street, west from Mesquite Street to Johnson Creek and would include smaller streets between East Abram Street and Division Street, to the north. That is included in the newest proposal.
Concerns over size
Boxall said she is concerned the pilot area may be too large. She told KERA News in an email the size may hinder the project’s success but would like to see more of East Abram Street included.
“I really would like to consider adding on the rest of East Abram, at least up to Stadium [Drive],” Boxall said during a city council work session Tuesday. “It just seems like a weird place to stop it, right there at Meadowbrook Park. There’s a lot of potential there.”
Gertson said that extended area was a top pick until recently. Now he thinks it might be better for a revitalization corridor, but extending form-based code to Stadium Drive might be too far a stretch.
The main concern is the way the area is already set up and that extending that far might be too much at once.
Boxall also noted that consultants hired by the city have offered to increase the scope of the project without charging more to the city. She questioned why the city wouldn’t accept that offer.
Andrew Piel, District 4 council member, said he’s also worried the area might be too large.
“A concern that I and some other council members had is that this thing was going too slow and is too complex and was turning out to be a giant tar baby as far as being something that weighs down the planning department and takes a long time to actually be implemented and done,” Piel said.
He said the more area form-based code covers, the more people the city will have to convince.
Gertson said the area is already "larger than what may be ideal for a form-based code area.”
He said form-based code, in most cases, is better used in a focused area. The decision to expand the area beyond just downtown came with the hope that including areas that influence downtown will make the introduction of the new rules easier and more effective.
“I expect that as we go through that, as we go through the public engagement process, we’re going to find out a lot of things that are going to allow us to contract or shrink the final boundary for the form-based code area,” Gertson said. “There does need to be ... a community of interest.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Council Member Rebecca Boxall’s concern that the pilot area may be too large.
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