Plan Of The Month: A Form-Based Code For An Island Community

Rutgers University and Duncan Associates are undertaking a revision of the US Virgin Islands Zoning and Subdivision Code for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR). The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI) has contracted Dover-Kohl & Partners (DKP) to work in coordination with DPNR and Rutgers/Duncan to draft the pilot project of the Form-Based Code component of the code revision, focusing on the capital of the US Virgin Islands – Charlotte Amalie.

Charlotte Amalie was settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1657 and grew following a colonial development pattern. Today the capital is a major cruise ship port of call, with 1.5 million visitors arriving by cruise ship each year, and is the Virgin Islands’ largest city, home to a permanent population of about 19,000 residents. It is on the Island of St. Thomas.

The Charlotte Amalie FBC is intended to demonstrate how an open community planning process and an FBC could work as a primary implementation tool for the more significant code revision effort. The weeklong Charlotte Amalie charrette – dubbed ‘The Town’s Blueprint’ – was managed by Victor Dover last month (Dec 2010) to elicit community participation, consider the rich history and architecture of the Virgin Islands, and put together an FBC for the capital city.

Residents, property/business owners, and government staff attended the week’s presentations and design sessions and visited the open design studio at the Grand Hotel, where each day’s progress was displayed. In addition, participants shared their goals and ideas through available microphone sessions by drawing and writing ideas on base maps, exit questionnaires, interactive keypad polling, and one-on-one meetings and conversations with planning team members.

The charrette produced a vision for Charlotte Amalie crafted by participants, who Victor Dover refers to as ‘the citizen planners,’ and a DKP team including members from Hall Planning & Engineering (transportation planning), Urban Advisors (economics), Chael Cooper & Associates (architecture), Springline Architects (landscape architecture & local VI firm), and Aaron Cook & Eduardo Castillo (urban designers).

The problems identified in the charrette were congestion, crowding, parking, and dormancy, while one-word visions for the future included walkable, active, vibrant, and productive.

The Big Ideas

The primary goals of the new FBC – named ‘The Big Ideas’ by DKP – are as follows:

1) Reaffirm & Protect The Traditional Way Of Building – Incentivize and require respectful infill.

2) Transform The Waterfront Into The Finest Public Space In The Caribbean – Pedestrian-friendly, beauty first, reconnect town to the waterfront.

3) Connect – Multi-modal: pedestrians, bicyclists, taxi, transit, and harbor transportation; step streets and guts provide greenway connections; new waterfront public spaces connect people to the water

4) Make Walkability The First Priority In Design – Smart street design, architecture, and parking solutions

5) Control The Scale; Small Is Beautiful – Use the code; promote building preservation/revitalization; 100 percent models.

6) Bring Town To Life At Night & Foster Overnight Stays – Improve parking, public safety, and transportation; bring a diverse mix of residences, entertainment, and services to the town.

7) Embrace Our Diversity & Improve Quality Of Life For All – Make town a place for all islanders to work, live, and play.

Mend And Improve The Neighborhoods.

The DKP code will seek to mend and improve the neighborhoods in the city through several measures:

• Fill in vacant lots to complete the neighborhoods: Infill on vacant lots will spark pride and reinvestment along every street. In addition, new buildings will follow standards to ensure they contribute to neighborhood character. In the interim, vacant lots can be utilized for other community purposes, including parking (with landscaping), pocket parks, or community gardens.

• Restore & reoccupy vacant buildings: Complex ownership and heavy regulation have resulted in many empty buildings – a safety concern and an eyesore. The existing blank building program (in the Savan Enterprise Zone) can be enhanced to include initiatives for fix-up and re-habitation. To maintain historic integrity, rules and procedures must make it more feasible to rehab buildings and less financially attractive to neglect them.

• Create high-quality neighborhood open spaces: The historic neighborhoods have prime opportunity sites for public open spaces. The “guts,” or drainage ditches that separate each area can be cleaned, replanted, and enhanced to become green walkway connections. The step streets should be restored as cultural, historical, and recreational resources. Pocket parks and community gardens can be built on vacant parcels for residents and tourists.

• Support neighborhood schools: The strong tradition of neighborhood schools should be resumed. The vacant lot reserved long ago for a school in the Upstreet neighborhood should be utilized for a school at last. In addition, community centers in each area can provide after-school education for children.

• Provide innovative parking solutions: A parking permit program should be established to give residents and businesses certainty. In addition, familiar lots can provide efficient parking for neighboring users, relieving the constrained parcels.

• Create walkable, livable streets: When rebuilt, streets should have a pedestrian-friendly scale maintaining the best features of the traditional street design. Re-establishing sidewalks and removing obstacles (such as utility poles) will make it easier to walk through town. Placing utilities underground will upgrade aesthetics and boost pride. Vehicle sizes and types can be limited on certain streets at certain hours to increase livability.

Enhance Downtown And The Waterfront.

The DKP code will also seek to enhance downtown and the waterfront. This will be done through the following measures:

• Integrate parking and transit: To manage the parking crunch, common parking areas (including structures appropriately “lined” with inhabited spaces and screened from view) should be explored. In addition, parking should be linked with transit, including a trolley/circulator and enhanced taxi service to serve downtown businesses.

• Attract more residents: If parking, safety, and transportation concerns can be solved, downtown will become a desirable place for additional residential units (for households of many income levels). In addition, a more extensive residential base can support stores offering a variety of goods, open into the evening. This will increase the allure of downtown for both locals and tourists.

• Provide waterfront greens and gathering spaces: Small gardens or plazas can be reclaimed at the water’s edge. Redesign waterfront parking lots as parallel or angled parking along Veterans Drive for traffic-calming benefits to lure back pedestrians; the more efficient land use will provide space for wide sidewalks, greens, and outdoor cafes in front of waterfront buildings. The aesthetics of the obvious Vendors Plaza should be elegant and reflective of the best of St. Thomas and the US Virgin Islands; a new design should be conceived for the vendor structures, which could combine temporary and more permanent features.

• Make veterans drive a catalyst for waterfront revitalization: The planned redesign of Veterans Drive will have a tremendous impact on the appearance and function of the waterfront and act as a catalyst for regeneration. This road needs to move vehicles more reliably, especially during rush hours. It must become a public space that introduces visitors to the Territory’s aesthetic refinement, polish, and dignity. But more than anything else, it needs to be welcoming to pedestrians. Travel speeds must be managed to encourage comfortable walking along and crossing to the esplanade. On-street parking, orderly tree plantings, pedestrian-friendly road dimensions, and short blocks with frequent signalized crosswalks will achieve this. The planned improvements should also include HOV or dedicated transit/taxi lanes to further aid the movement of passengers, at least during critical periods. These improvements to Veterans Drive can be implemented almost immediately. A crucial detail of this revitalization project is the travel movement near the historic fort and legislature. Two design options for this area that attempt to meet the goals outlined above were explored during the charrette (a Network Option and a Bypass Option).

Following the charrette events, the planning team synthesizes ideas generated with additional input received and creacreatesirst a draft of the code. Finally, the team will return to the capital to present the refined vision and conduct a public workshop to gather feedback on the draft code in March 2011. Visit thetownsblueprint.com for updates on meeting times and locations. This planning effort will result in a new FBC District that can be carefully applied in selected areas throughout the Territory. Charlotte Amalie was chosen as the first “pilot” area to test this approach; similar visioning processes and Form-Based Code districts could be applied in other regions if the community desires.