P ARCEL -L EVEL T OOLS AND A PPLICATIONS

1. DENSITY BONUSES TO ENCOURAGE MIXED-USE COMMERCIAL/ RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Density bonuses in target areas can serve as incentives to encourage mixed use or any other type of development a neighborhood needs. Ideally, density bonuses give these target areas a competitive edge over non-targeted areas. At the same time, they should not result in projects that are out of scale and character with the existing environment. Density bonuses often come in exchange for certain benefits or amenities to ensure that new development makes a net positive contribution to the neighborhood, and they are a common tool for encouraging housing in downtown areas.

Applications

The City of Bellevue, Wash., uses a FAR (floor to site area ratio) incentive system to implement transportation-efficient development in its downtown. The city gives bonuses for downtown developments that combine residential with commercial uses, including façade treatments, the provision of underground parking, and TDM actions.

The success of this incentive system has been attributed to the generous density bonuses provided (WSDOT 2002).

Cities such as Seattle, Wash., and Washington, D.C., encourage developers to add residential uses in otherwise commercial zones by giving density bonuses. In Orlando, Fla., the downtown code allows increases in the floor area of projects that include more than one use, with density bonuses increasing with each additional type of use. In Portland, Ore., the downtown ordinance permits developers to triple the maximum allowable floor area of a project that has residential uses.

2. ALLOWING OR REQUIRING RESIDENTIAL ABOVE COMMERCIAL/RETAIL

Allowing or requiring mixed-use buildings in targeted areas provides a ready market for non-motorized travel. Also, incorporating residential development in mixed-use commercial and retail projects can add new housing types to an area, contributing to the diversity of a community (figures I.12 to I.14). Bringing residents into an area helps support local commercial establishments while the retail or services in a mixed-use development adds to the vitality in an existing neighborhood.

Model Code Application

Dupont, Wash. (This approach has been applied in a mixed-use zone)

“Where business and residential portions of the building are located on different floors, business/commercial uses shall occupy the floors below the residential uses to preserve a residential atmosphere for the residents above” (Metro Regional Services 1997).

3. GROUND FLOOR COMMERCIAL/ RETAIL REQUIREMENTS

A number of communities encourage or require retail uses on the ground floor of residential or office buildings (figures I.15 an I.16). This may include requiring a portion or all of a parcel’s street-fronting ground floor to house commercial uses. The vertical mixing of uses is typically accepted and successful in dense commercial areas with high pedestrian activity. Such areas, however, must be limited in size to what the market can support, as noted in the applications below.

Applications

San Jose, Calif.

As office space was taking over street-level uses in the downtown area, the city implemented a ground floor retail ordinance, which affects approximately 17 acres of downtown. This ordinance paved the way for a new, three-million-square-foot mixed-use project that is hoped to “bring a critical mass of retail in the downtown” to help office workers walk to and from their lunch time errands, and to extend downtown activities at night and on weekends (Levy 2001).

Seattle, Wash.

The amount of ground floor commercial or retail zoned in a given area needs to be to be balanced with market forces. In the early 1990s, the City of Seattle experienced over-saturation of ground-floor commercial or office uses in mixed-use developments as the result of an “umbrella” zoning requirement to include ground-floor retail or commercial uses in new multi-family developments. The city subsequently reduced the size of areas where mixed uses were mandated.

Other communities addressed the over-saturated market issue by working some flexibility into their codes. Often the retail requirement is waived once the area has reached market needs. In these cases, however, ground floor uses still must espouse an "open, people-feel" in harmony with existing mixed-use types (Thomas and Potter 1993).

25 Figure I.12: Residential uses over retail

Figure I.14: Residential uses over retail and office

Figure I.15: Office over retail

Figure I.13: Residential uses over retail

Figure I.16: Ground floor retail in compact residential area

Model Code Applications

Vancouver, Wash. (This approach was applied in a mixed-use zone)

“Different uses, either within a single building or on a development site, must be provided. Residential uses must be provided, but are not permitted on the ground floor of mixed-use structures. In the Downtown activity center, commercial uses must be provided on the ground floor” (Metro Regional Services 1997).

4. ALLOWING HOME OCCUPATIONS IN ZONING CODES

Most residentially zoned areas traditionally prohibit businesses to be run out of a home. The intent is to retain the residential nature of the area by maintaining low traffic volumes, keeping noise down, and strangers out. However, with changes in family structure, household composition, and the advent of computer-based businesses and telecommuting, these factors may no longer be priorities in new and existing communities (Weiss 1993).

Applications

Portland, Ore.

In 1991, the Portland planning department rezoned a part of the city as a mixed commercial/residential zone, which allows “business-based homes.” Following the zone change, a new urban infill development sited between an existing warehouse and a single-family home consists of “ten new self-contained, individually owned, mixed-use buildings, each with a 2,200-square-foot commercial base topped by a 2,200-square-foot townhouse” (Macht, 2000).

Montgomery County, Md.

The county set up four categories of "home occupations" based on their anticipated impact on the surrounding community: no impact, registered, major, and home health practitioner. These categories entail an ascending degree of government involvement in regulating the conduct of the business (Weiss 1993).