 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
So why should we control design? Establishing and enforcing appropriate design controls is in everyone's interest - the community at large, the property owners, the neighbors, the developers, the architects and other design professionals, the lenders, and the public officials.
Design controls make explicit a community's vision for a particular area in ways that are both more understandable and more enforceable than zoning. Members of the community are often under the mistaken impression that zoning — and by extension the applicable subdivision and site plan provisions — will protect their interests from adverse development. However, they are often unsatisfied with projects built to conform exactly to these requirements, which tend to fall short of the expectations. The disconnect between expectations and real outcomes represents the gap between what can be achieved through conventional zoning and land development regulations and what is possible through community design.
The community has every right — indeed responsibility — to set high standards for itself. To do anything less is tantamount to accepting a low self-esteem. By developing and codifying an appropriate community design framework, the community is essentially creating the rules of the game. These rules must be clear, concise, realistic and fair. Establishing these rules is a service that the community provides for all the interested parties. Property-owners can have a clear picture of what is planned for their properties; developers have a clear picture of what is expected from them; and neighbors have a clear picture of how their immediate surroundings can be expected to change. Many of the ambiguities and misunderstandings with which land development is rife can be removed from the process. Everyone knows, and accepts, that if a development project is submitted in conformance with these rules, it will receive expeditious approvals. It is hard to overstate how important this aspect of fairness and predictability is to the development industry, which is used to having the rules of the game changed in mid-stream and without notice, usually to their disadvantage.
Of course a community design framework that is defensible and sustainable can only be reached through a community process that involves ample participation from all interested parties. It requires an up-front investment in time, resources and energy that most communities are unwilling to make, in part perhaps because they are too unsophisticated to recognize its long-term advantages. It is not unlike the decision to buy a cheap, but energy consuming appliance, instead of a more expensive, but energy efficient appliance that pays for itself over a few years in the form of cheaper utility bills.