SmartCode

Zoning reform is essential to allow the walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that residents desire and to create the economically sustainable development cities require. Zoning reform is essential to offer an alternative to sprawl, preserve open lands, and reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

The SmartCode is a unified development ordinance that incorporates the proven Transect-based planning principles of New Urbanism and Smart Growth. As a model ordinance, the SmartCode is written in a concise, flexible template to be calibrated for local conditions and used in towns, cities, regions, and private developments.

The nonprofit Center for Applied Transect Studies provides the SmartCode for free use to encourage zoning reform. It has been implemented in hundreds of cities around the world. Modules on 28 subjects have been created to supplement the base SmartCode. The modules can be found at transect.org.

Andrés Duany is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, an international movement that seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment. He is a founding principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), which has completed designs for nearly 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects, largely under his helm. This work, including many international projects, has exerted significant influence on the practice and direction of urban planning and development in North America and abroad. Mr. Duany developed and is the lead author of the SmartCode; other recent publications include Garden Cities: Theory and Practice of Agrarian Urbanism, The Smart Growth Manual, The New Civic Art, and Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.