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Planning and Economic Development Committee PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE JUNE 17, 2014 A meeting of the Planning and Economic Development Committee was held on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, at 7:08 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large Daniel T. Moriarty, Chair, presided. Members of Committee present: Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Diane Sheehan (Arrived at 7:08 p.m.) Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman Sean M. McGuinness Also in Attendance: Mr. Alan Manoian PUBLIC COMMENT - None DISCUSSION A First Look at Form Based Codes with Alan Manoian Mr. Alan Manoian It’s a privilege to be here tonight and I thank you for letting me join you tonight. Chairman Moriarty The reason we are discussing form based codes is because a mechanism for planning the City of Nashua. Mr. Manoian After leaving my service to the City of Nashua I had a great opportunity to serve as the Planning Manager for the redevelopment of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station. This is where I had my introduction to form based codes. We are reinventing a former Naval Air Station of about 1,300 acres into a new smart growth planned community and conventional zoning was not going to deliver the physical outcome of a place that functions in a very vibrate and dynamic way. In 2004, I had an interesting opportunity to be introduced to form based codes and I ultimately became…I was a member of the inaugural class of the Form Based Code Institute in the summer of 2005. I became the first certified, in terms of training, certified Form Based Code administrator in the State of New Hampshire and Maine several years ago. I’ve been speaking on Form Based Codes. I think I gave one of my first presentations to my old division here in 2006. We did the first Form Based Code in the State of Maine for the town on Standish and I am currently serving as the Economic Development Specialist for the City of Auburn and we are launching our downtown Form Based Code process Thursday evening. At this point, every state in New England, there is a town or city in every state in New England that has in fact, adopted a Form Based Code. Form Based Code’s for the rest of the country, well it’s no longer as cool and cutting edge as it was when I started doing it, it’s pretty much become the norm, especially on the west coast, the south, and they have really filled in the mid-west central part of the state. New England is where really they are sort of emerging last but that’s good and right because as we know in New England, change comes slowly and that’s the way we like it. The fascinating thing is that Form Based Code’s actually deliver and that’s why I am starting with our State of New Hampshire state line signs. The concept of the compact, mixed use, concentrated development pattern that we think of as a New England village. When I started my first sessions at the Form Based Code Institute with some of my colleagues from the rest of the country, they would look on my little name badge and they’d say oh, you are from New Hampshire? There were only two or three of us from New England doing this. There was a town in California that was adopting a Form Based Code and we are using the historic bird’s eye view maps of New England PEDC – 06-17-14 Page 2 towns and cities that were created in the 1870’s and 1880’s and we are copying them street by street for the model. Those New England towns were the most perfect, sustainable, mixed-use dynamic physical model for a place. That’s why I think Form Based Code’s might take a little time here because we have the real thing. We are the authentic thing. The sad part is that a lot of our New England towns and cities, during the years of urban renewal, 1960’s and 1970’s and then afterwards, we really tore the fabric of our town centers and downtowns apart for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, over the last 20 years, it’s all being woven together but the reality is there’s a disconnect that often exists when we come up with wonderful Master Plans and we did a great downtown Nashua Master Plan in 2003 with one of the greatest new urbanist consulting firms in the world which was Urban Design Associates out of Pittsburgh, PA. In most places you have a great Master Plan that says we want to have this place developed and you usually use terms such as “we want the buildings to be of a New England character” and “we want it be harmonious with the traditional fabric and historic fabric.” We don’t often know what that means but when it hits our zoning ordinances, the physical outcome of the development often is not what is articulated in our Master Plans and visions. Form Based Code was developed to really say that we need a regulatory instrument that reconnects with our plans and actually delivers the actual physical form, the physical outcome of the place that our Master Plans say that we want. There are three buildings shown on page one of the presentation, compactly put together. The church with the steeple and the two buildings next to it. If those three buildings were not together in the contextual pattern; let’s say that each of those three buildings on that image were separated and pulled apart and they were one- story with parking lots between them, you’d say “well, that’s not New England.” It looks like “New England” because of its physical development pattern and how those buildings relate to each other. Some quick examples of communities that have adopted Form Based Codes in New England are Southfield, MA; Mashpee Commons, MA; Jackson-Appleton-Middlesex District, Lowell, MA; Tri-Town District, Tewksbury-Andover- Wilmington, MA; Dover, NH; Stratham, NH; Milford, NH; Newport, VT; Hamden, CT; Jamestown, RI; Standish, ME; Yarmouth, ME; and Auburn, ME. For Nashua, in every community, a Form Based Code applies in every community for its own distinct reason. There’s no one particular reason you do a Form Based Code in one particular area. When I look at Nashua and I believe you folks are looking at it more for the Urban Downtown District somewhere, a Form Based Code in Nashua would be beneficial because it would really advance the urban lifestyles. Innovation district eco-systems; I see the blocks behind Main Street and I’ve been intrigued for years, I look at those areas behind Main Street, both on the west side and the east side as being extraordinary places to create what we call Innovation Districts or neighborhoods or villages. Places where young professional people are going to gravitate together. I see it as a great opportunity to create a hot bed of co-work spaces, of innovation labs, of new start-up and innovation companies all woven into shop fronts and store fronts and café’s. They need an evening scene and then of course, introducing the whole residential factor of very hip residential units tied into and creating literally a Nashua Urban Innovation District or village. Agglomeration economics is simply the economics of weaving things together in a very compact, diverse and vibrant way and the economics that spin off of that are extraordinary. Conventional zoning was all about separating uses. Isolating, separating and detaching. Agglomeration economics is about bringing everything right back together in a very compact and powerful way. You have to design places where you have lots of spontaneous encounters on the streets and such and again, this is where dynamic things happen. You try to attract young professions, people who are maybe 55 and over that are looking for a lifestyle change because we are all going to live to be 90 now. An 18-hour economy, places like this should be vibrant; starting at 6:00 a.m. and going through to 11:00 or 12:00 at night. There’s constant vitality as there are different people using these places during different times of the day. A good Form Based Code can deliver that type of thing. The next slide is a classic New England town where everything is concentrated beautifully together preserving open space and land around it. There’s incredible social, cultural, and economic catalytic form and fabric. The places we love the most are places that were created before there were Planning Boards, before there were planning and zoning regulations, before there were any of those things. Chairman Moriarty But back then, they didn’t have cars. We had Jim Vayo in here a couple of months ago and he is particularly interested in a walk-able city. If you don’t have cars, you naturally design towns that are walk-able. PEDC – 06-17-14 Page 3 Mr. Manoian That’s true and I’m always fascinated that folks bring that up. Do you know the axel width of the carriages and wagons and everything they used back then are the same or larger than our cars do today. Folks have to get in touch with real history and understand that these were “wheeled” places always and they actually needed more room on the streets and more room for parking and the roads were more dangerous than they are now because of the horse-drawn wagons and the carts and carriages.
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