Panel to weigh new code for downtown
Plan would create walkable, mixed-use zones, featuring ‘character areas’
FORT SMITH — The Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District Commission is scheduled to vote later this month on a new code proposed for the downtown area.
The code’s intent would be to create downtown sections in a walkable, mixed-use environment — with shopping, employment, housing and civic use, according to the draft. The code would pave the way for the reuse and rehabilitation of buildings, some of which are historic, as well as enable new infill development.
Brenda Andrews, senior planner with the city Planning Department, said the Fort Smith Downtown FormBased Code will be presented to the commission in November for a vote on whether to recommend the code to the Fort Smith Planning Commission and Board of Directors. If supported by the Central Business Improvement District Commission, it would go to the Planning Commission in January and to the Board of Directors in February.
Should the board adopt the code, Fort Smith Development Services Director Maggie Rice said, it would be incorporated into the city’s unified development ordinance. “It’ll be a different zone, essentially, with character areas,” she said.
The Central Business Improvement District Commission heard a presentation and, afterward, weighed in on a final draft of the formbased code during its meeting on Oct. 20.
Andrews said the code was a key recommendation out of the Propelling Downtown Forward Master Plan. This plan, according to the Fort Smith website, was adopted by the city in August 2017 and is continuing “the downtown vision for a more walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown that supports quality of place, real estate development, infrastructure, place making, job creation and arts and culture.”
Jayashree Narayana, principal of the Texas-based planning and urban design firm Livable Plans & Codes, said there are challenges with the existing zoning for the downtown area.
“Right now, you have a situation where you’re only regulating what happens on private property,” Narayana said. “But we know in downtown, walkability is so important that the relationship between what happens on private property and the public ground is really critical.”
The current zoning is based on “use” versus “design,” Rice said. A form-based code, in contrast, focuses more on “design” versus “use.”
“And one of the things that the form-based code is going to require, if adopted, is it’s going to require a certain street facade build-out, which means a certain portion of the building is going to have to occupy the area closest to that front property line to give pedestrians more of a feel as they walk down, say, Garrison Avenue,” Rice said.
A form-based code, according to Narayana, would implement a specific vision for downtown, focus on the character of different sections of the area, emphasize form over use and streamline regulations. Such a code could be better for downtown by, among other benefits, facilitating predictability of development outcomes in the area and making it attractive to multiple modes of travel, such as cars, bikes and walking.
Narayana further illustrated the concept of a formbased code with a tool called a “Form-O-Stat,” which is derived from the word “thermostat.”
“So a lot of planners and zoning geeks like us really think about form-based codes as an on or off, you know, it’s either a form-based code or convention zoning,” Narayana said. “But the reality is it’s really a gradation between one and the other, and there’s different degrees, if you will.”
The Form-O-Stat that Narayana described places basic urban design standards at zero degrees, its low end. From there, the tool can be adjusted, progressing through general architectural standards to the other side of the spectrum, 10 degrees, which includes more nuanced standards related to style and preservation.
“The thing about a FormO-Stat as an analogy … you can set the dial at any level that the community’s comfortable with,” Narayana said. “So it doesn’t really have to be zero or 10. It can be anywhere in between.”
In addition to development standards, the form-based code contains a boundary map that divides the downtown area into six different “character areas.” The names for these character areas are Garrison; Cisterna; Civic/ Medical; Warehouse and Industrial; Riverfront; and Neighborhood.
“Each character area creates a distinct urban form, which is different from urban forms in other character areas,” the code draft states. “Each character area establishes use and development standards including height, bulk, building and parking location, and functional design.”
Central Business Improvement District Commission Chairman Bill Hanna asked if the form-based code would change the administrative process. Andrews responded in the affirmative.
“Now, when someone is doing something in the Central Business Improvement District, and whatever it is they’re doing, it might require a variance from the current Garrison Avenue Historic District guidelines, or it’s new construction, those types of reviews now are held with the CBID,” Andrews said. “That would change.”
Andrews said that if a development met the formbased code, there would be no need for additional review other than from the Fort Smith Planning Department and going through the building permit process. If a development needed a variance, it would go to the Planning Commission.
Should the form-based code be adopted, current property owners downtown will be grandfathered into it, the Fort Smith website states. Any uses or structures they have on their property right now can remain the same.
This all comes after the Board of Directors voted in September to approve a permanent entertainment district in downtown Fort Smith.
“Each character area creates a distinct urban form, which is different from urban forms in other character areas,” the code draft states. “Each character area establishes use and development standards including height, bulk, building and parking location, and functional design.”