| 11/25/2005 8:44:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| The office of South Main River Park is located on East Main Street in Buena Vista. Photo by Jason Starr
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‘Smart Code’ proposed as new overlay option for zoning regs
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
Jed Selby initiated a campaign to spread the development paradigm used for his South Main river front project in Buena Vista to all of Chaffee County.
It’s called the Smart Code and the 27-year-old Tucson, Ariz., native and his sister/business partner, Katie, 29 – encourage it as an alternative to zoning regulations guiding development in Chaffee County.
Selby’s effort comes as Chaffee County Engineer and Planning Director Don Reimer and the planning commission are revamping zoning codes and land use regulations.
The goal of updating the zoning codes is to make them more compatible with the county comprehensive plan, which calls for development directed toward municipalities as opposed to sprawling on open space.
Selby says no matter how the zoning map is reconfigured, it will result in sprawl because it is a “use-based” code, regulating uses in each zone.
The Smart Code, he said, is “form-based,” with specific design criteria for each development and the goal of achieving compact, mixed-use neighborhoods in rural settings and building on historic downtown settings in Salida and Buena Vista.
Selby has given two presentations about the Smart Code this month to elected officials and town planners.
He said the Smart Code would be an overlay code – a non-mandatory option for developers and landowners to provide an alternative to two- and five-acre rural subdivisions working their way through the county planning process.
“Under the existing code, there’s one option and that’s sprawl,” Selby said. “We know what we’re going to get and we’re not going to like it.”
The Smart Code was published in 2003 by Andres Duany of the Miami-based urban planning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk.
Focusing on the traditional neighborhood model, the code provides specific design criteria for streets, buildings, blocks and open spaces, recognizing distinctions along the spectrum from urban to rural.
A key element of the Smart Code is that criteria for developments are determined by citizens in large brainstorming sessions known as “charrettes.”
“The charrette is the time when the vision is created,” Selby said.
In 2003, a year after the Selby siblings purchased 40 acres abutting the Arkansas River on the south end of Buena Vista for their South Main neighborhood, they held a public charrette.
It was led by personnel from Dover, Kohl and Partners, a Florida-based planning firm well versed in Smart Code implementation.
The result was a vision for a neighborhood with office space, houses, apartments, shops and restaurants adjacent to the river, which is being built into a whitewater park.
The whitewater park should be ready for use this spring. Construction on the park and neighborhood is underway.
While the Smart Code is well-suited for downtown development, county planners questioned how it would translate in rural Chaffee County after one of Selby’s recent presentations.
The code addresses the issue with a tool called “transferable development rights.” They provide economic incentive for rural land owners not to subdivide their property allowing them instead to sell their development rights for use in areas where growth is more desired.
In Chaffee County, those areas would likely be Johnson Village, Nathrop, Poncha Springs, Salida and Buena Vista. The result would be a network of self-sufficient, interconnected townsites, each with commercial and residential aspects, in addition to open space.
The townsites would be built to specific standards for roads, sidewalks and buildings as pre-determined by citizens at public charrettes.
Specificity of the code prevents developers from having the final say in how the county is developed, Selby said.
“The code is so descriptive and people know what they are going to get,” he said. “You build identifiable, real neighborhoods where you have character and you don’t have to drive everywhere.”
Selby acknowledges a no-neighbor mentality has fueled the rural subdivision model of development. But he believes a home in a traditional, mixed-use neighborhood will be a more marketable product than a home on a private, rural lot.
“The biggest threat to their privacy is the future of lots that surround them,” he said, noting there are roughly 2,000 rural lots on the market in Chaffee County.
“When you’re selling privacy and exclusivity, every time you subdivide another lot, you’re taking away from the amenity you’re selling. When you’re selling community, every new house and every new lot adds to the amenity,” he said.
Selby is in initial stages of introducing the Smart Code concept to local officials and the public. During a presentation last week for officials from the county and municipalities, paying for putting it into effect it was broached.
If the county and municipalities eventually approve use of the code, they would have to pay a consultant to help start it and lead the charrettes, Selby said. That would cost about $125,000.
Meanwhile, the county recently hired a consultant to work through the new zoning map and help with the 600-acre Friend Ranch golf course development.
“This has a lot of merit,” county commissioner Tim Glenn said. “But for anyone to commit to this is way too premature.”
Selby and his sister are professional kayakers and their South Main project has been featured on CNN, in “Outside” magazine and in The Rocky Mountain News.
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