CHAPTER 4 Land Use Chapter 4. What the 2001 Legacy Plan says about Land Use… Land Use Minimize suburban sprawl Goal: Encourage higher development densities and mixed-use development within the serviceable Facilitate land use patterns that offer a variety land area of housing choices and convenient access to neighborhood shopping, schools, parks, and Increase infill development in the serviceable land area other services; protect property owners from incompatible land uses; make efficient use Direct business uses and higher-density residential growth to activity centers and urban boulevards of Forsyth County’s limited land capacity; and and discourage strip commercial coordinate land uses with infrastructure needs. Introduction Promote land use patterns and transit-oriented design standards that support public transit, walking Land use patterns are one of the most crucial and bicycling aspects of how a community functions and grows. By examining current land use we can determine Develop regional coordination of land use planning among the communities of the region which patterns have worked well and which Protect residential areas from inappropriate commercial and industrial encroachment need to change to facilitate sound, sustainable growth in the future. As discussed in Chapter 2, Identify throughout the county underutilized commercial or brownfield sites that can be reclaimed Updated Trends , the predominant land use pattern for neighborhood commercial development in Forsyth County over the past several decades has been low-density, suburban, single-family Consider more flexible conditions for locating accessory apartments and other varied housing residential development constructed at one to within residential neighborhoods four dwelling units per acre. Nonresidential development, including industrial, commercial Require sidewalks for traditional neighborhood developments and consider them for standard and institutional sites, also have become very subdivisions low density through the development of large, Make provisions for a neighborhood-scale, mixed-use commercial district one-story buildings and extensive parking lots. In order to accommodate 120,000 new people Enhance the appearance of thoroughfares by requiring reduced sign sizes and heights and 66,000 jobs without losing population to surrounding counties and cities, this pattern will Rezone land in Downtown Winston-Salem for higher residential densities need to become more balanced. Promote a system of vegetative buffers along streams The primary guidance for Forsyth County’s land use is through specific area plan recommendations Prepare and adopt open space subdivision provisions and the Legacy Growth Management Plan ( Map Ensure that fire/building codes facilitate mixed uses and the use of upper floors of downtown 3-2 , see Chapter 3 , Growth Management ). commercial buildings for residential use These recommendations are implemented through changes to the Unified Development Ordinances Provide incentives/restrictions to address vacant or derelict commercial properties (UDO), the compilation of regulations that govern land use in Forsyth County. Area plans analyze the 42 L EGACY 2030 existing characteristics, trends, problems, and ling or limiting the effects a proposed land use of land by use for GMAs 1-4. The Existing Land opportunities of specific areas of the city and may have on adjacent properties, such as noise, Use Map shows the current pattern of development county, then make recommendations for future glare, and traffic. Unlike traditional Euclidean zon - and the current amount of each type of land use in land use, transportation, community facilities, ing, performance zoning is fairly flexible on where the county. Comparing it to the Proposed Land Use historic resources, economic development, and land uses can be located as long the effects on Map demonstrates how well some Legacy policies environmental protection. Once adopted, area adjacent properties are kept within established have been implemented to date. The Proposed plans become an extension of the comprehensive limits. Form-based codes focus on the physical Land Use Map serves as the blueprint for plan. While area plans do not change zoning, form of development rather than the separation development in the county. It does not change the they do serve as guides for the Planning Board of land uses as in Euclidean zoning. Form-based existing zoning on any property, but provides and elected officials to use when making zoning, codes are organized around the desired physical guidance for future zoning activity and a public investment, and other planning decisions. form development should take and focus on the framework for future public capital improvements. relationship between buildings, streets, and public Zoning decisions have followed Legacy and area The purpose of zoning and subdivision regula- spaces; the form and mass of buildings in relation plan recommendations approximately 90 percent tions is to help in implementing the goals for to one another; and the scale and types of streets of the time. In that regard, Legacy’s land use community development as described in its and blocks. Form-based codes can also include strategies have had success. comprehensive plan. Zoning has typically been special standards oriented to different growth used to separate different land uses that were felt management areas along the urban to rural Through area plan recommendations and action on to be incompatible with each other. Land use continuum (see Chapter 3 , Figure 3-1 ). Form- zoning cases, higher-density housing has regulations help shape the character of our based codes are generally more flexible in terms been encouraged at activity centers, Downtown, community through establishing rules affecting of uses, but more prescriptive in terms of building and along urban boulevards. Significant higher- many basic aspects of orderly development scale, massing and design elements. This approach density residential growth has occurred along including building height, setbacks, separation and originated with the New Urbanism movement and Peters Creek Parkway, Griffith Road, University lot size. Regulations also set standards for site emphasizes mixed-uses, walkability, and Parkway, and other corridors designated in area elements such as signage, landscaping and traditional design principles. Unlike design guide - plans. However, single-family residential develop - buffering, stormwater management, tree lines, these are regulations that are adopted into ment is still Forsyth County’s dominant land use. preservation and similar features. Land use city or county law or as ordinance requirements. In For the most part, new commercial and office uses regulations have been used by communities to addition to our local UDO, the NC State Building have been located in identified activity centers; establish basic design requirements for Code and Fire Code also regulate how land is de - however, some additional strip commercial development. veloped. While beyond the scope of Legacy , it is rezonings have occurred on South Stratford Road, worth noting that building and fire codes have Peters Creek Parkway, University Parkway and The current City-County UDO incorporates ele - changed how development review occurs. some other major arterials. Other sporadic ments of three different types of land use zoning: commercial rezoning has been approved in Euclidean; performance; and in some cases, form- How Have the 2001 Legacy Plan locations not supported by area plans. Zoning based zoning. Euclidean (a name taken from a decisions often set precedents for the future on town in Ohio that pioneered zoning), or traditional Strategies Worked? properties with similar characteristics, making it zoning, is the most prevalent type of zoning in the With all area plans except the Rural Area important to carefully consider the long-term country and deals primarily with the separation of completed for the county, we now have a effects of those decisions. land uses and dimensional requirements for each composite Existing Land Use Map ( Map 4-1 ) zoning district. While it is easy to implement and and Proposed Land Use Map ( Map 4-2 ) along The Legacy goal of encouraging more mixed- enforce this type of zoning, there is little with an accompanying table ( Table 4-1 ) that lists use development has been realized in area plan flexibility. Performance zoning focuses on control - the current and proposed acreage and percentages recommendations with many older areas CHAPTER 4 - L AND USE 43 recommended for mixed-use redevelopment, Avenue and Business 40. Another overlay district, including older warehouse areas north of the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay (NCO), Downtown Winston-Salem, South Stratford Road was revised in 2005 and 2007. The NCO is and Hanes Mall Boulevard. Most new commercial intended to preserve and enhance the appearance land on the Proposed Land Use Map has been rec - and special character of certain older ommended for designated mixed-use areas or neighborhoods. The revisions were made to the activity centers. Homes affected by existing non - NCO District because some of the original residential uses or major road widening have been procedures and standards were vague and in need given a viable land use option with low-intensity of clarification. Since the revision, two office and commercial. The Proposed Land Use neighborhoods have made use of the NCO District. Map recognizes the entire Downtowns of Winston- Salem and Kernersville