Urban Landscapes

The following in the unedited version of an article that I wrote for the Colorado Urbanist, a publication for the Congress for the New Urbanism – Colorado.  The Colorado Urbanist will publish its most recent newsletter in the coming weeks.

Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, or DPZ, was the master planner for two early neo-traditional neighborhood developments (TND’s) in Colorado Springs: Spring Creek and Lowell.  Not only did DPZ introduce new urban neighborhoods to the City, but they also were instrumental in the creation of Colorado Springs’ TND zoning overlay (Part 1; Part 2), which is guided by a document of standards, policies and guidelines.  The document outlines many of the standards of a modern-day form-based code and includes a vital section on context-sensitive streets, which due to a collaborative effort between designers and local officials and organizations (Traffic, Public Works, Fire Department, etc.), enabled smaller street widths than the city would normally allow.  Examples of the standard street widths in the TND zoning overlay include:

• 16-ft wide Alleys

• 22-ft wide Lanes (two-way yield streets with on-street parking on one side)

• 28-ft wide “TND Streets” (two-way yield streets with on-street parking on both sides)

Full Story: Spring Creek: A Neo-traditional Neighborhood in Colorado Springs