Jeff Speck wrote a tweet-length “zoning code”. It was something like, “zero front setback, parking in the rear”. I think a similar shorthand for achieving a walkable city is FAR 3. For the uninitiated, floor-area ratio (FAR) 3 means an average of three times as much building area for each unit of lot area. In practice, after some of the site is used of open space and circulation, this means buildings that are 3-6 stories high.
Trust me, I did the math, and the right density is FAR 3. If an area is well served by schools, shops, transportation, and parks, then communities should allow FAR 3. I believe this will enable truly walkable, affordable, resilient, and sustainable communities, and responds well to the current state of building technology and financing.
Your favorite cities are FAR 3: Barcelona, Paris, Brooklyn, Manhattan Lower East Side, Boston North End, Capitol Hill Seattle, parts of Los Angeles.
If you really look at some of the new mixed-use districts being put up by REITs across the country, they have a walking street but are not walkable communities, because they are on life support from the copious parking garages that allow
Long-term urbanism benefits from being low-tech. And FAR 3 with buildings between three and six stories allows stair access to residences for the majority of residents who are able to walk. Walkups also extend the idea of a walkable city from the streets into buildings’ interior circulation.
Charles Montgomery’s Happy City was in a large part a reaction against the tower lifestyle in Vancouver and embraces the low-rise high density of townhome living. Human-scale is being able to communicate with people on the street, being able to use the stairs to get home.
I spent a lot of time working on the first WELL Community, and going on the conference circuit talking about healthy cities. There are a lot of operational things that communities can do to have better healthy outcomes, but from the scale of a master plan, the biggest one by far is just ensuring walkable density. That, and considering planting non-allergenic trees. But mostly walkability. With FAR 3, walkability is 3D, as it also extends into the building and up the stairs.
I’m not anti-elevator, but I also think the requirement for all residential buildings to have elevators is overkill and not resilient. I can imagine a future in which it is very hard to find elevator parts, and the shaft is there as an ode to what once was. Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin were all built before the elevator. There are some hacks to getting furniture up, like the cranes of Amsterdam.
In areas served by infrastructure and amenities, project proponents should have to make a good case why housing shouldn’t be on top of another use. New grocery store? Would be great with at least three stories of housing on top. New library? Throw some housing on there. Office? The thinner dimension of housing stack well on top. In parts of town that are unsafe for humans (see Robodistricts) there obviously shouldn’t be housing, but everywhere else its a good bet.