Iowa City tries new approach to zoning in South District development

IOWA CITY — When Kelcey Patrick-Ferree lived in Minneapolis, she was three doors down from a four-unit apartment building that was roughly the same size as a house.

She moved to Iowa City’s South District in 2013, just a couple years before the city began discussions of implementing a similar style of housing — known as missing middle — in the area.

Years in the making, the Iowa City Council this week unanimously approved the final consideration of amending the South District Plan to allow a non-traditional type of zoning on 900 acres of undeveloped land. The zoning known as “form-based code” prioritizes physical form instead of the separation of property uses like traditional zoning does.

One of the goals of the form-based code is to allow a variety of housing types besides single-family homes and mid- to high-rise apartments. Examples of “missing middle” housing are duplexes, fourplexes and townhomes that are roughly the size of houses and fit in with the character of the neighborhood.

Missing middle housing is one of the aspects Patrick-Ferree liked most about the plan. Her neighborhood in Minneapolis felt walkable, and it was easier to get to know her neighbors.

“What I would love to see is for this to be an extremely successful planning mechanism that we can then expand to the rest of Iowa City because I think it's really important to have walkable neighborhoods and a sense of community in all parts of Iowa City,” Patrick-Ferree said.

Form-based code for South District ‘a long time coming’

The city has been working on making form-based code a reality in the South District for a handful of years, going back to 2015 when the South District Plan was adopted to outline a vision for the area. Form-based code came from that discussion, and the city did a study to see if it was a possibility, City Manager Geoff Fruin said.

The city entered into a consultant agreement with California-based Opticos Design in 2019 to develop form-based code for the South District. For the last two years, the city and Opticos have been drafting it with input from residents, property owners and others.

“This is a long time coming,” Fruin said.

Iowa City has adopted form-based code in the Riverfront Crossings District south of downtown. However, the scale of buildings in Riverfront Crossings is larger than what is discussed for the South District, said Anne Russett, the city’s senior planner.

Most zones in the South District allow only house-scale buildings, whereas there are some areas in Riverfront Crossings that allow seven or eight stories, Russett said.

The land in the South District is about 900 acres with the majority of it undeveloped, Russett said. There are about 10 different land owners, she added.

Tony Perez, a senior associate with Opticos Design, explained how form-based code focuses first on the public realm and where you are — streets, trees, neighborhoods, houses and other environments — and everything else comes second. Perez said a form-based code is the best approach to create more walkable neighborhoods.

“It fosters predictable built results and high-quality public ground by using physical form, rather than separation of uses,” Perez said. Perez has spent the last 22 years helping communities with zoning codes with a focus on writing form-based code.

Perez said the typical zoning approach focuses first on separating uses and “second, if at all, on form.” Conventional zoning includes a map with what uses are allowed and where, Perez said.

Form-based code includes a map with color to show intensity of use and intensity of form, Perez said.

“Yes, this is a different way of doing things — I'll be the first to tell you — but it's intentionally different,” Perez said.

Expanding housing types

One of the major goals the city hopes to achieve with form-based code in the South District is ensuring a diversity of housing types, Russett said.

A big component of the code, Perez said, is incorporating “missing middle housing,” a term coined by the founder of Opticos Design, Daniel Parolek. Missing middle housing includes housing types that are between single-family homes and mid- to high-rise apartments.

Middle housing went “missing” in the late 1940s around the time of World War II because cities began to make their neighborhoods differently, Perez said.

Patrick-Ferree, who is also a member of the South District Neighborhood Association, has been involved during the outreach process, including speaking in favor of the zoning code during the council’s first consideration Oct. 5. She is looking forward to the variety of housing and hopes completing the missing middle will be a “strong focus.”

“We have a lot of large apartment buildings in the South District already, which are absolutely necessary as part of the city's housing, but I want to see a bigger variety of housing types in the entire city, frankly. But since we're starting out here, let's do it right here and then show how well it can work,” Patrick-Ferree said.

Russett said 81 percent of the city’s residential land is zoned for single-family homes. The city can’t control rent or cost, Fruin said, but by providing for different housing types, there should be different price points.

“We cannot dictate what those price points will be,” Fruin said. “The best we can do is try to get the diversity of housing in there and then use incentive programs, and there are some incentives in that form-based code to encourage affordability, essentially volunteer into some rent control, and you might be able to benefit by getting extra density, extra height, something like that.”

Other goals

Another main goal is creating a highly interconnected street network that people can access by walking, biking or driving.

“We also want to create neighborhood nodes, neighborhood centers, whether that's through creating small commercial pockets or creating civic spaces that are easily walkable,” Russett said.

A form-based future land use map for the area shows public and private civic spaces in addition to the land use designations.

Other goals include creating walkable areas, preserving environmental resources and the ability to apply these regulations to other areas in Iowa City.

"While the proposed plan and code amendment will not solve complex issues like climate issues, equity issues and sustainability, it can help,” Russett said.

Implementing form-based code

Development will take place over several decades, Fruin said.

Land not within city limits in the 900 acres will have to be annexed. Fruin said the city will wait for when property owners are ready. Land annexed into the city will have to follow form-based code and won’t be annexed into traditional zoning code, Fruin said.

Russett said about half of the land is within city limits and the other half is in unincorporated Johnson County.

The land already within city limits will have the option to develop under form-based code or traditional zoning. Fruin said he expects property owners and developers to volunteer into the form-based code, like in the Riverfront Crossings District.

“We hope that they see the benefits and added value of going to the form-based code,” Fruin said. “We think there is a lot of added value not only for the community but for the property owner and developer.”

Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com