A new planning concept, called form-based zoning, is being implemented in Spokane Valley to blend retail, office, and residential uses, beginning with those on the Sprague-Appleway corridor, while Post Falls is developing a similar zoning method called SmartCode.


Unlike conventional land-use planning, which often defines in narrow terms the uses that fit in delineated zones, the concept of form-based zoning, also known as design-based zoning, promotes mixed land uses within a neighborhood.


Scott Kuhta, senior city planner with Spokane Valley, says form-based zoning would be less restrictive than conventional zoning on how land could be used, but potentially would place more restrictions on designs.


In Spokane Valley, which is working with Freedman Tung & Bottomley, a San Francisco-based urban design firm, form-based zoning would encourage residential uses on Appleway and a mix of retail, residential, and office space on Sprague.


Thats the direction were going relative to the Sprague-Appleway corridor, Kuhta says. Were over capacity for retail. We would like to encourage a different mix besides the street-retail environment.


Kuhta says he expects that draft planning documents with proposed regulations for the Sprague-Appleway corridor will be ready for review in May.


In October, Post Falls began embracing SmartCode, a form-based zoning product being developed by PlaceMaker LLC, a Miami Beach, Fla.-based urban planning consulting company.


Collin Coles, Post Falls senior city planner, says hes expecting that a draft SmartCode zoning ordinance, which will be ready for public review possibly as soon as this week, will be fully adopted and implemented by summer.


SmartCode is intended to create neighborhoods with residential and commercial uses intermixed, Coles says.


He says form-based zoning reduces the number of trips people need to make out of their neighborhoods for basic commodities.


It also promotes after-hours activity that helps neighborhood business survive, Coles says.


Kuhta says, Form-based zoning is less about specific uses and more about how one building would not deter development of the lot next to it.


He says integrated, form-based codes address how buildings are situated on lots, with buildings fronting sidewalks, rather than having parking spaces between the storefronts and the sidewalks.


They are designed so commercial buildings can be compatible with residential buildings through facades and pitched roofs, he adds.


If such a code were implemented in the Sprague-Appleway corridor, owners of existing buildings would have to follow it when they want to expand them.


The code would require the addition to be close to the sidewalk with parking on the sides and rear and with a design thats compatible with residential and office uses, Kuhta says.


A vital part of form-based zoning is how street design relates to the development around it, he says. In the corridor, Sprague and Appleway are parallel, one-way arterials that stretch from near Interstate 90 at the Sprague interchange east to University Road. Since 2003, that portion of Sprague has carried only westbound traffic and the parallel stretch of Appleway has carried eastbound traffic.


For the mixed land uses proposed, those arterials would be narrowed, converted back to two-way streets, and made more pedestrian friendly, with wide sidewalks and landscaping, he says.


It cant be successful with a four-lane, 35-mph road, where everyone drives 45 mph, Kuhta says.


Rick Dullanty, a longtime land-use attorney at Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole PS, of Spokane, speaks highly of the form-based zoning concept.


He says conventional zoning regulations dont make sense if they restrict land uses that might benefit, or at least have no adverse effects on, surrounding properties.


Regulations should be about impacts on surrounding properties, Dullanty says.


For instance, he says, residents in a community might not want a big-box furniture store in their neighborhood, but a smaller store that doesnt attract a lot of traffic might be an asset.


If its a small store that looks like a townhouse, who cares if its a furniture store or an apartment? he says.


Dullanty says he hasnt seen many jurisdictions outside of Spokane Valley and Post Falls that are taking a serious look at form-based zoning.


Its harder to implement from a regulatory point of view, but its workable, he says.


Daryl Wilder, owner of Wildwood Building Co., a Coeur dAlene-based developer, says he likes what hes heard about form-based zoning in Post Falls.


It looks like its going to free up some city officials, he says. They were sometimes in awkward positions when they had to deny good projects because of zoning laws.


Form-based zoning allows officials to review projects more in depth on a case-by-case basis, he says.


Wilder says he would like to see form-based zoning implemented in more jurisdictions.


Design plays a big role in communities that people are proud to call home, he says, adding, Im favorable to more stringent design regulations as long as they dont add too much to construction costs. That can derail a project.


Post Falls Coles says SmartCode wont replace the current zoning ordinance, but will run parallel with it.


SmartCode requires people to do things, but so does the zoning code, he says.


A five-acre parcel might be too small to implement SmartCode, he says, adding that standard zoning would apply there. Larger subdivision applications would fall under Smart Code, which would require civic and commercial elements, the intent being to encourage mixed use, he says.


Coles says theres still a lot of details to work out before SmartCode will be fully in place. But some of the SmartCode concepts, such as building closer to the street and placing parking behind buildings, are being incorporated in requirements placed on newly proposed projects.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.