All comments on the referral drafts are due by 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 15, 2010, although we would appreciate them as soon as possible. Comments can be submitted either by hand delivering them to the Planning Department located on the 3rd floor of City Hall (5520 Lacy Road) or e-mailed to susan.sloper@city.fitchburg.wi.us. All comment sheets should include the following information:

1. Your name and address or organization for whom you are submitting comments.

2. Comments and/or suggestions on the Referral Draft SmartCode, Referral Draft Ch. 22 Updates, Referral Draft Ch. 15 Update, and/or Draft 2010 Comprehensive Plan Amendments. (Note: If you are commenting on a specific draft section – please be as specific as possible by providing page numbers, table numbers, or other specific references from the draft chapter to help us incorporate your comments).

There will also be opportunity for public comment at the Plan Commission meeting, Tuesday, July 20 at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers. For an explanatory flyer, click here (716kb .pdf).

This step puts us one step closer to adopting a new approach to zoning standards for future growth. To catch up on all the hard work that’s come before, start with the overview column to the immediate right. Then, scroll down the posts that precede this one. They’re in chronological order, beginning with the most recent.

We’re now in the home stretch of the public process that will ultimately lead to adoption of our new code. Next up: Public comment at the July 20 Plan Commission meeting. To see the timeline for the process, go here.

The reason we’re so far along, just four months after our successful charrette, is due to the collaborative spirit of the community. Together, we’re shaping standards for growth that will be a benchmark in our region. We have every right to be proud.

Thanks to all who participated.

“When people peruse the draft,” says PlaceMakers principal Susan Henderson, “they’ll get a feel for how all the things we talked about during the February charrette play out in an actual code.”

The draft of Fitchburg's SmartCode zoning option is now available for review.

What’s in the new code? First of all, the proposed SmartCode District won’t replace all of Fitchburg’s zoning. Rather, it provides a “floating zone” instead replacing the Planned Development District (PDD) option. The advantage over the PDD approach is predictability. With the new SmartCode, everyone, from developers to neighbors to City staffers, will know what project standards will look like and how they’ll fit with their surroundings.

Among the other topics we discussed during the charrette that have found their way into the proposed code:

• A new Business Park Special District designation;
• Separate standards for two types of neighborhoods – one that can be characterized as a mixed-use Traditional Neighborhood Development and a more intense one that is especially oriented towards access to transit;
• A series of Civic Space designations customized to fit Fitchburg park types;
• An administrative review approach edited to conform to state law; and
• A provision to rezone smaller parcels under the SmartCode provided they are part of a Neighborhood Plan designed to implement Smart Growth

What happens next? The draft code will get a thorough going over by various City departments, citizen committees, and elected officials. There will be plenty of chances for refinement and revisions as it makes its way towards adoption. But everyone who participated in the process that has taken us this far should congratulate themselves. We’ve taken the next big step towards shaping Fitchburg’s future.

The full transect of Fitchburg development, from the most rural to the most urban.

Fitchburg has the unique advantage of lying between the time-tested urbanity of Madison and the inspiring landscape of the rural countryside. Citizens have access to either in a matter of minutes.

“But here is what’s missing,” said PlaceMakers project manager Susan Henderson to an audience of local residents and community leaders on Friday night. Behind her on the screen were images created during an intensive week of discussion and idea testing. They depicted a Fitchburg that not only enjoyed its current array of single-family suburban housing and commercial areas but also added to the mix the appeal and practical performance of more compact, walkable neighborhoods.

Making Fitchburg a more complete community with the full range of living, working, and playing environments “won’t happen overnight,” said Fitchburg Mayor Jay Allen. “This will build out over the next 15, 20, or 30 years.” But the drawings and plans the PlaceMakers team presented gave the audience a glimpse of how that build-out might look.

To see all of the slides in Henderson’s closing presentation and draft tables for a Fitchburg-appropriate zoning option, go to our Documents section in the toolbar above. Directly below this story are selected images illustrating approaches the project team proposed after studying the area and listening to citizens over the course of the last week. You can follow the progression of the week’s ideas in the chronological posts stacked in the left column of our home page. And you can measure the results of the effort against the goals in the project overview to the immediate right.

What’s next? The PlaceMakers team will prepare a “comment draft” of their report for City staff review by the end of April. Then, the team’s proposals will be submitted for comment and action through the City’s standard processes for public review. In the meantime, comments and questions are welcome here, in the space provided at the end of each of these posts.

While the Friday night presentation concluded one phase of planning for Fitchburg’s future, it signaled the beginning of others. Creating and maintaining a livable community “is not something you just do and then forget about it,” said the mayor. “You can’t just put it on auto pilot and expect it to keep going on.”

In fact, Henderson told the Friday night audience, planning and implementing plans are part of “an obligation a city has to its citizens. Cities have a moral obligation to plan for the future.”

ABOVE: Choosing the way we want to live shouldn't isolate us from the full richness of life. A complete environment, ranging from more rural to more urban in a single neighborhood, provides all scales of density to suit all tastes and gives each access to the natural beauty or urban conveniences of the other. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An aerial rendering of clustered, rural T2 hamlet development on a small portion of otherwise agricultural land. Ranges from 6 to 18 lots. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An example of rural clustering utilizing a shared septic system. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An example of rural clustering with individual septic fields. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A typical street scene reflecting the SmartCode's T3, Sub-Urban, transect zone—customized to reflect Fitchburg's regional history and resident input. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A typical street scene reflecting the SmartCode's T4, General Urban, transect zone—customized to reflect Fitchburg's regional history and resident input. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A typical street scene reflecting the SmartCode's T5, Urban Center, transect zone—customized to reflect Fitchburg's regional history and resident input. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A SmartCode-compliant land plan option for an existing northeast Fitchburg parcel, based on a current neighborhood proposal. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A second SmartCode-compliant land plan alternative, produced by PlaceMakers for the same parcel. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An illustrative rendering of the PlaceMakers-produced northeast neighborhood option. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A SmartCode-compliant variation of the current GreenTech development proposal. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An illustrative rendering of the GreenTech development option. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: A proposed land use plan for the current Fairways and Pines / Fitchburg Ridge property. Click for larger view.

ABOVE: An illustrative rendering of a proposed plan for the current Fairways and Pines / Fitchburg Ridge property. Click for larger view.

Communities want to retain their rural character, both as productive agricultural land and as scenic landscape. Farmers need access to at least some of the cash they’d get for developing their land. And counties and municipalities want to minimize cost-per-household expenses of extending services deep into the countryside.

One answer might be to reintroduce the traditional rural hamlet.

Fitchburg’s recently adopted Comprehensive Plan provides for approaches that allow farmers to sell or transfer some of their development rights into rural clusters, which would minimize infrastructure costs, preserve coherent agricultural tracts, and provide some revenue for farmers. So during the weeklong Fitchburg charrette, project team designers and planners were charged with proposing ways in which the cluster idea might be applied.

Fitchburg planner Jason Schmidt, who works with many of the farmers in the area, was invited to appear on WMTV’s Friday midday news show to explain how the charrette was addressing the cluster idea.

The first sketch of a cluster provides a solution for grouping 10 to 18 structures on a 30-acre parcel on an existing road. Because it’s on a road, the grouping allows for lower costs-per-unit for infrastructure. It’s a viable alternative to dotting the homes and the roads to serve them; yet, with “back yards” that may stretch for hundreds of acres, the clusters retain rural character.

An example of rural clustering with individual septic fields.

In fact, such hamlets, including ones that grew beyond this range, were common in farming country before the era of automobile dominance. They offered community and convenience close to working land. The “bones” of such places remain in crossroads settings throughout rural Wisconsin.

So maybe one solution to the challenges of the 21st century is the application of tried-and-true traditions of an earlier era.

After a week of sorting through ideas and testing them in collaboration with Fitchburg citizens, the PlaceMakers project team presents key components tonight of zoning approach that will add alternative options to future development and redevelopment.

The principal approach missing from the current choices of car-centric suburban, rural, and industrial/office park development is one that enables mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods like those found in the most popular sections of Madison and other historic cities. So much of the Friday night presentation will show ways in which property owners and developers can use the tools of a SmartCode to achieve those kinds of neighborhoods.

Here’s how we got to where we are: Monday through Wednesday, the team toured Fitchburg and listened to citizens talk about their hopes and concerns in topic-focused meetings. You can see how the meetings were organized under the Schedule. And you can follow the progress of the week in our front-page posts arranged chronologically below this one.

On Wednesday night, the team posted ideas in a “pin-up” and invited citizens to critique work in progress. And on Thursday, designers and planners began refining the work that will be shown in the Friday presentation.

Completed renderings and illustrations will be unveiled to help residents visualize the character of development typical to SmartCode applications.

What will citizens see tonight?

Project manager Susan Henderson will present the basic whys and hows of a code customized for Fitchburg. PlaceMakers designers have been working with four local developers, using their property as demonstration projects to illustrate how the new code might look in real places. Attendees will also get a look at suggestions for a way to handle rural residential clusters in land now designated exclusively for agricultural use. The approach could allow farmers to realize some revenue from development rights without altering the character of the rural landscape and without threatening the productive capability of Fitchburg’s rich agricultural assets.

So come on out tonight at 6:00pm and see what the week’s work produced. If you can’t attend in person, we’ll publish the presentation and report on the event in these Web pages on Saturday.

During Wednesday night’s “pin-up”, PlaceMakers consultants tried out potential SmartCode standards—rules for everything from set-backs to special industrial districts to architecture—which stimulated plenty of comments. Project manager Susan Henderson explains what the team posted and what citizens had to say:

For a closer look at the documents Susan Henderson references in the video, go to our Documents section under the heading of Code Resources. But remember, these are draft versions. By Friday night’s concluding presentation, the team will have added yet another round of revision to accomplish the goals of Fitchburg residents and business interests, without forcing impractical standards.

The same goes for plans sketched and presented for critique on Wednesday. Designers listened to property owners and are tweaking illustrative plans for re-presentation on Friday.

The idea exchange has gone the other way, as well. The project team members saw light bulbs come on when citizens saw concepts illustrated for the Wednesday-night pin-up. It’s easier to understand how traditional neighborhood design makes for more connected, pedestrian-friendly living when you see visual examples as opposed to just words in a regulatory document. More people seem to grasp the project’s goals, to enable patterns of community currently in short supply in Fitchburg.

One local, Sam Cooke, didn’t need to see the drawings to grasp the concept. He experienced it in person, over time, when he discovered the amenity of community and convenience in the trade-off with privacy and vast open space.

Friday, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Community Center, citizens will get a good look at what this week-long collaboration has produced.

After more than two days of tours and meetings, the PlaceMakers consulting team took to the drawing board to sketch ideas. Then, they pinned sketches on the Community Center walls for a Wednesday night open house and citizen critique.

[Catch up on what happened, and get a guided tour through work-in-progress, with this video. Story continues below:]

On the walls were sample sections of the SmartCode as they might apply to areas in Fitchburg and sample site plans for existing parcels. The sites were volunteered as exploratory models by local developers and property owners. Nothing formal; just an opportunity to test concepts in real places.

Also displayed: A plan for a small cluster of homes appropriate for a rural hamlet (See an explanation of the goal by PlaceMakers team consultant Andrew von Maur in this earlier post).

The pin-up served two purposes. Residents, developers, and other elected officials got a look at how SmartCode ideas might play out in places they were familiar with. And by engaging directly with the people who will have to live with and do business under the SmartCode, the PlaceMakers team got valuable feedback on their work in progress.

So what did they hear?

Reactions were generally favorable. Some folks were downright excited, since the Smart Growth concepts behind the SmartCode are becoming increasingly popular with citizens who want to protect what they like best about a community and encourage new development in more sustainable ways. Others – particularly developers with long experience and significant investments in the current ways of planning and building in Fitchburg – want to see more before they buy into this new zoning approach.

PlaceMakers planners, who count among their North American clients developers as well as municipalities, are confident they can demonstrate the bottom line potential of the SmartCode. That’s because the code enables a development pattern – walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods – in short supply in Fitchburg. A good start in that demonstration strategy is the modeling of SmartCode ideas in the sample projects.

By Friday night, when the team makes its concluding presentation, planners and designers will have taken the Wednesday night feedback into consideration and refined their ideas into an early draft of the proposals they’ll submit to the City.

So plan to attend that Friday presentation at 6 p.m. at the Community Center. If you can’t make it, check back on these Web pages. We’ll post reports, images, and documents here so you will always be in the loop.

City staffers and members of the PlaceMakers consulting team reassured attendees that the proposed SmartCode will not be a wholesale rewriting of current zoning regulations. And current home owners, developers, and business people will likely not have to change they way they’re operating under current rules.

The new SmartCode will be an optional “floating zone” that can be requested by developers for large-scale projects in areas where there is currently no development or in areas designated for redevelopment. It’s most effective use may be in bringing order and predictability to the current Planned Development District process. It adds choice where none now exists.

What sort of choices? In Tuesday meetings project team members discussed alternatives to current development patterns in rural areas and in closer-in sections where walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods might meet future market demands. If developers and residents choose, they can even achieve through the SmartCode a small town Main Street feel in a place that can become a future Fitchburg town center.

While opinions were by no means unanimous, many of the attendees were curious about how new development might look under a SmartCode. So the PlaceMakers designers and planners will sketch ideas to “pin up” on Wednesday night. For a schedule of the Wednesday night open house and of events leading up to the final presentation on Friday, go here.

The most engaged session on Tuesday may have been the one involving longtime farmers. They heard a presentation by PlaceMakers consultant Andrew von Maur about a SmartCode-appropriate option for rural residential clusters. Instead of clustering a group of homes in untillable, wooded sections of their property, farmers might want to consolidate “splits,” their options for developing lots, in parcels with easy road access. Such clusters would take the form of rural hamlets of perhaps six to 10 units.

The hamlet option will be among those explored further in the Wednesday night “pin up.”

Introduced by Mayor Jay Allen, Susan Henderson, project manager for the PlaceMakers consulting team, provided a 20-minute introduction (3.2mb .pdf) to the regulatory approach the team will use. Then, Jennifer Hurley, also on the consulting team, led the group through a table exercise designed to help citizens test some of what they heard in Henderson’s presentation.

For an overview of the night’s activities, click on the video below.

The introductory presentation reiterated the key points of form-based coding: Form-based codes differ from conventional coding in that they focus on the look and feel of structures as they relate to streets, sidewalks, and other components of the public realm. They are tools for creating connectivity and community. The organizing principle of conventional codes, on the other hand, is separation. They define zones according to building uses – residential, office, retail, industrial, etc.

The kind of form-based code that will be customized for Fitchburg can be adjusted according to the intensity of development desired for a particular zone. Rural areas, for instance, will have a different mix than more urban areas. So flexibility is built into the code. No development approach is forbidden. It’s just assigned an appropriate place.

The week’s discussions will include test applications of a code customized for Fitchburg. And that’s where the second part of the Monday-evening opening event came in.

Groups were directed to tables with maps of specific areas and asked to consider appropriate development intensities for sites in those sectors. What should remain essentially working farms? Where might there be opportunities for grouping residences? How about mixing in retail or multifamily units? Where would that be appropriate for Fitchburg?

The discussion revealed hopes and concerns – plus questions to address during the next few days. By Wednesday night, when the team posts ideas in a public “pin-up,” many of the Monday night questions will be explored in images, making it easier to decide what works and what doesn’t.

For a look at the week’s day-by-day schedule, go here. Then follow and comment on each day’s events on these web pages. Reports on each session and images produced by the team will be posted daily.