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Revised Zoning Ordinances - Discussion


pgsinger

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Here's the Waynesville example I like to use:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Waynesville,+NC/@35.504187,-82.990941,3a,51.1y,181.19h,87.21t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sEIBoVBpC_wUpH6r7uTxSnw!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x88597110e8f7808d:0x93fa2173ebffebea

The code says you have to build to the street.  It doesn't say "you can't have a drive through lane go across the front of your site".  So what Mickey D's did was build to the street and put a tunnel through the building.  If you want to see more, explore this street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.499392,-82.986562,3a,48.2y,11.66h,83.92t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sP-NuVHSm7753un00esRu0A!2e0

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.503667,-82.990485,3a,75y,185.36h,89.48t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sFrTKunEhRnF6r-BYgdUNBA!2e0

It's still better than having a sea of parking on the street.  I know Waynesville's not perfect, but at least its code doesn't allow anything like the Bojangle's we have at the intersection of 3rd and Charlottetown.  

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I kills me to know that the original developers of Pecan Point (small shopping center at the corner of 7th St and Pecan) tried to do the right thing. They wanted an urban form.  That is, the shopping center would have been the opposite of what it is now, but archaic Charlotte zoning wouldn't allow it.  What's worse is that that building is now 29 years old, and zoning has yet to change to keep this same story from happening again.  

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Here's the Waynesville example I like to use:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Waynesville,+NC/@35.504187,-82.990941,3a,51.1y,181.19h,87.21t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sEIBoVBpC_wUpH6r7uTxSnw!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x88597110e8f7808d:0x93fa2173ebffebea

The code says you have to build to the street.  It doesn't say "you can't have a drive through lane go across the front of your site".  So what Mickey D's did was build to the street and put a tunnel through the building.  If you want to see more, explore this street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.499392,-82.986562,3a,48.2y,11.66h,83.92t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sP-NuVHSm7753un00esRu0A!2e0

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.503667,-82.990485,3a,75y,185.36h,89.48t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sFrTKunEhRnF6r-BYgdUNBA!2e0

 

This doesn't seem like a fundamental flaw in form based zoning, just flaws in Waynesville's form.  It seems they had gaps in their form that developers simply took advantage of.  Right?

 

I do agree that this is better than a see of parking, but still far from ideal.

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^Or Elizabeth residents wouldn't allow Pecan Pointe to be Rezoned to a more urban zoning district.

The parking of the center wouldn't have changed (the building was to be a reverse of what it is today--that is, the parking (same amount of spaces--they would have been to the rear of the center, while the building hugged the intersection).  

 

Besides, does it really matter what residents think?  I have new Publix, complete with impenetrable concrete islands down the middle of Randolph that I'll have to deal with here in Cotswold; all city council could say was "well, those are legitimate concerns, but...My point being that zoning and council decisions are so often WILDLY off what the best solutions for the redevelopment of a site should be, and are never handled in the same manner from one neighborhood to the next, regardless of zoning. Form-based codes might not be a panacea for the trouble Euclidian zoning creates, but they would address many of the failings and shortcomings of these types of decisions.  

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