ZONING & FORM-BASED CODES

Zoning is a highly complex element of implementing community planning proposals. More than at any time since the United States Supreme Court validated zoning 80 years ago, zoning is changing and at hundreds of planning commission meetings each year, McKenna professionals assist and advise public officials on continuing and changing zoning issues.

McKenna’s planners' expertise helps ensure that zoning regulations promote a common vision and address the community's regulatory and societal requirements.

McKenna professionals educate community leaders in new zoning techniques and provide specialized training for newly elected or appointed officials. We also offer continuing education to ensure community awareness of changing techniques in urban design-oriented zoning, such as form-based and Smart Codes©.

McKenna planners can also step in and administer municipal planning and zoning departments on an interim or long-term basis.

Below are a few related projects representing our experience in zoning.

ZONING ORDINANCE | City of Midland, Michigan

Midland is a successful Midwest city, but its "up-north, fresh and clean" identity was threatened by zoning standards that encouraged formulaic strip malls and big-box chain stores...

View complete project sheet (PDF). | Contact McKenna

ZONING ORDINANCE | Bay City, Michigan

Bay City is an historic "central place," Midwest city, but its outdated zoning ordinance was a poor fit, in need of fixing. Restrictions that reflected suburban, not city, values conflicted with the City's Traditional Neighborhood Design...

View complete project sheet (PDF). | Contact McKenna

ZONING ORDINANCE | Village of Morrow, Ohio

A quiet, one-time railroad town located just outside a rapid growth area, the Village of Morrow faced an exodus of business and the possible loss of its last prime development parcel to a landfill...

View complete project sheet (PDF). | Contact McKenna

ZONING ORDINANCE | Village of Peninsula, Ohio

A small Ohio town surrounded by the Cuyahoga National Park, the Village of Peninsula feared ending up like many other "national park towns," housing an uncontrolled array of tourist-focused businesses and other undesireable development...

View complete project sheet (PDF). | Contact McKenna