United States

The Ten Books on Architecture (1st Century)

Author: Vitruvius

Date: 1st Century BC

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Translation: Morris Hicky Morgan

Source: The Project Gutenberg

Selections: Book I: Chapters IV, The Site of a City
Chapter VI, The Directions of the Streets; with Remarks on the Winds
Chapter VII, The Sites for Public Buildings

Description: This chapter describes Vitruvius’ ideas on the siting of new towns.

Assessment: Vitruvius’ recommendations for siting of new cities govern mainly solar exposure (avoid southern, western exposure) and marshes (avoid siting within or downhill from stagnant marshes).

New York City Zoning Resolutions 1916

Los Angeles Ordinance 1929

Chicago Zoning Ordinance 1923

Phoenix Zoning 1941

City of Mesa, Zoning Ordinance Pamphlets: Multiple Residence Districts, Arizona (1993)

Author: City of Mesa Community Development Department

Date: 1993

Publisher: City of Mesa

Description: This is a double-sided single page pamphlet explaining uses in three residential zoning districts.

Assessment: The use of a simple graphic matrix to break down a complex zoning ordinance is a good idea. There is a danger that the graphic armature obscures the code, failing to relate elements of the code to each other in a meaningful way.

Sustainable Suburb Study, Alberta, Canada (1995)

Author: Calgary Planning and Building Department Staff

Date: 1995

Publisher: City of Calgary Planning & Building Department

Source: Sustainable Suburbs Study: Creating More Fiscally, Socially, and Environmentally Sustainable Communities. Adopted by City Council on July 17, 1995. Calgary, Alberta. Available online

Selections: Section 4.3 (pp. 21-29)

Description: This document stops short of being a code, for political reasons intentionally remaining a guideline. It strongly enforces the neighborhood structure.

Assessment: This is a very comprehensive document involving justification, technical description, guidelines, and references. It incorporates an energy efficiency component for cold climates. It has been adopted by the Calgary City Planning Commission. The graphic layout does not contribute to the structure of the document. It is not clear for whom it is written, but it could serve planning staff and other professionals.

Celebration Pattern Book (1997)

Author: Urban Design Associates

Date: 1997

Publisher: The Disney Company

Description: This pattern book deals with architectural syntax and the placement of (residential) buildings on lots.

Assessment: The graphics are excellent and constructive. This book might not be effective as a municipal code, however, as the architectural standards that might be developed out of these patterns would likely be too restrictive.

Orlando Naval Training Center Planned Development Application, Florida (1998)

Author: Orlando NTC Partners

Date: 1998

Publisher: Orlando NTC Partners

Description: This is an application for a master planned redevelopment of a decommissioned naval center.

Assessment: The plan broadly applies New Urbanist principles to a particular site. It incorporates environmental uses, at least in the form of a park system. It includes principles, concepts, development standards, and regulatory frameworks for classes of mixed-use development as well as environmental and transportation plans for the whole. It could easily be incorporated into a code. It provides a good level of detail for a master plan.

People Places: Guidelines for Open Space (1998)

Author: Clare Cooper Marcus and Carolyn Francis, eds.

Date: 1998

Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold

Source: Marcus, Clare Cooper, & Francis, Carolyn. (1998). People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Selections: Pages from Urban Plazas checklist (pp. 80-84)

Description: This is a book on urban open space design. The checklists at the end of each chapter are generally compatible with neighborhood structure.

Assessment: An edited version of the checklists could be useful as appendicies if incorporated into a code. Material is well-researched and well explained.

Downtown Kendall Urban Center District, Florida (1999)

Author: Dover, Kohl & Partners

Date: 1999

Publisher: Board of County Commissioners of Miami-Dade County

Selections: pp. 12-15

Description: Ordinance for urban center focusing on building massing and frontage requirements for sub-districts.

Assessment: This is a clear, concise, formative code for a dense urban development.

City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village, Washington (2003)

Author: David Sucher

Date: 2003

Publisher: Self published (City Comforts Press)

Source: Sucher, D. (2003). City comforts: how to build an urban village. 2nd ed. Seattle: City Comforts Press.

Selections: Chapter 2: Bumping into People

Description: This is a manual for citizen-participants in the public process of planning.

Assessment: This is a very user-friendly manual, and the images are unusually effective. The text encourages reading from front to back. The principles could be the basis of an urban code.

SmartCode (2003)

Author: Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ)

Date: 2003

Publisher: Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ)

Source: The code is open source and free of charge. Click here for more information.

Selections:

Description: "The SmartCode is a model transect-based development code available for all scales of planning, from the region to the community to the block and building. The code is intended for local calibration to your town or neighborhood. As a form-based code, the SmartCode keeps towns compact and rural lands open, while reforming the destructive sprawl-producing patterns of separated use zoning"