Planners, Officials to Take to New Brunswick's Streets to Study Latest Smart Growth Tool; Rutgers workshop will showcase community 'character-keeper' economic stimulus

Oct. 25, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EDITORS NOTE: ATTENTION ASSIGNMENT, PHOTO EDITORS, to join a measuring tour of buildings in downtown New Brunswick to learn from planners how form-based codes can help meld a communitys residential and business interests, contact Stuart Meck, 732-932-3640, ext. 640, or Leo Vazquez, 732-932-3822, ext. 711, or visit www.policy.rutgers.edu/cgs/fbc. The tour will begin Nov. 1 at 1:45 p.m. from Civic Square

(Room 110/117, first floor), 33 Livingston Ave. Media parking is available in the garage at the buildings rear.

PLANNERS, OFFICIALS FROM NEW JERSEY AND BEYOND WILL TAKE TO

NEW BRUNSWICKS STREETS TO STUDY FORM-BASED CODES,

LATEST SMART GROWTH TOOL THAT PLACES FORM OVER FUNCTION

Rutgers workshop will showcase community character-keeper, economic stimulus

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NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. As community planners, developers and officials seek smart growth solutions to the burdens caused by sprawl, a new tool has been added to their toolbox: form-based codes.

Form-based codes are becoming equally important for residents who want officials to protect a communitys character and for business owners who want those same officials to offer flexibility to changing market conditions. They primarily control physical form of built landscapes, with a lesser focus on land use, and in many places replace conventional zoning.

To familiarize planners, developers and redevelopers, such allied professionals as architects and attorneys, and local officials with this relatively new planning mechanism, the Center for Government Services (CGS) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will offer Form-Based Codes 101, Nov. 1-2 in New Brunswick. The introductory training workshop will be taught by the Form-Based Codes Institute, a Virginia-based group of the leading planners and land use lawyers in the form-based codes movement. The group includes Peter Katz, whose 1993 book, The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community, is considered a groundbreaker in the New Urbanism movement.

New Urbanists work affects regional and local planning. They are involved in new development, urban retrofits and suburban infill, and their neighborhoods are walkable and comprise a range of housing and business options.

Form-based codes are the next new thing for American city planning, and are particularly useful for redevelopment, transit-oriented development and New Urbanist style communities, said Stuart Meck, CGS director and a national authority on planning and zoning enabling legislation. Form-based codes address the character of development first, rather than land use, Meck explained. Thats what most residents of a community do focus on the design of buildings. But the codes still provide flexibility to property owners.

By using a New Brunswick neighborhood as a studio, workshop participants will learn to read the DNA of their communities. Also, they will be able to apply what theyve learned in a future online studio class that we will offer in January.

The workshop, limited to 65 registrants, will run 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, 33 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick. The neighborhood measuring tour is scheduled Nov. 1 from 1:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. Along with New Jerseyans, participants from Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and Virginia have enrolled.

The $695 fee for New Jersey residents and select nonprofit group members includes materials, two continental breakfasts and lunches, and a reception on Nov.1. For those outside New Jersey, the fee is $725. For more information about the workshop, which is co-sponsored by the Bloustein Schools Professional Development Institute, and to register, visit www.policy.rutgers.edu/cgs/fbc.

Contact: Steve Manas
732-932-7084, ext. 612
E-mail:

061025-2

CGS-Form-basedcodes.ed

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