A. Purpose:
1. To implement the Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan by promoting development that is characterized by a sustainable, efficient, and adaptable urban form in areas that have had, or will have, the benefit of detailed context-sensitive public planning processes.
2. To provide a method of regulating the use and development of buildings, and address how buildings relate to surrounding development and public infrastructure with less focus on the separation and regulation of particular land uses.
3. To provide a zoning option that allows for and accommodates the changing uses of buildings while maintaining the integrity and viability of the public realm, with an emphasis on intermodal transportation options, pedestrian linkages, and orientation.
4. To encourage flexibility, innovation of design, and a variety of development types that will improve the quality of physical development over that normally achieved through the application of the City's standard single use zones, and when the Planned Development Zone (PDZ) and mixed-use (MX) zoning options are not sufficient for providing the desired flexibility and innovation.
B. Requirements:
1. The allowable urban form and the treatment of the public realm define the FBZ district. Uses allowed in this zone are determined at the time of approval or amendment of a FBZ regulating plan. Development standards are determined by the FBZ regulating plan, the Development Plan, and a development agreement, if applicable.
2. The requirements of a FBZ district are specific and prescriptive and are not intended to be design guidelines. The specificity of the requirements provides certainty for applicant neighborhoods and City staff. The minimum standards of the requirements imposed by a FBZ regulating plan are not intended to limit design creativity or adaptation to unique site or neighborhood conditions.
C. Establishment of Form, Mix, and Intensity of Land Uses: The form and intensity of all buildings (including dimensional requirements) shall be established during review and approval of the FBZ regulating plan. Additionally, the FBZ regulating plan shall establish detailed requirements governing the relationships between all buildings and the public realm and shall identify any limitations to the land use types or land use mix allowed in the district. Uses identified in the regulating plan shall be permitted.
D. Common Area Maintenance: The Regulating Plan must address maintenance of common areas when improvements and maintenance needs are beyond standard City responsibility.
E. Subdivision and Public Improvements:
1. An approved Development Plan for the entire area of land proposed to be included within the Subdivision Plat is required before subdivision of the FBZ district or issuance of Building Permits. This does not preclude the platting of the entire FBZ district as one lot prior to the approval of a Development Plan.
2. Requirements for public improvements within a FBZ district, including off-site public improvements, shall be established and obligated in conjunction with the subdivision platting or Development Plan processes.
F. Development Agreements: See Section 7.5.414 (Development Agreements).
G. Regulatory Incentives: As part of the regulating plan approval process, regulatory incentives may be provided in the FBZ districts to encourage and facilitate creative form-based development.
1. Inherent Flexibility: The FBZ regulating plan process allows significant inherent flexibility. Development standards prohibited and allowed uses, and parking standards may be adopted to be permissive and not limiting, provided that this flexibility still results in implementation of the overall form-based objectives of the FBZ Regulating Plan.
2. Staff Authority: The ordinance creating an FBZ district may include broad staff authority to grant administrative relief from specified development and design standards, but shall not authorize administrative relief from the standards of Parts 7.4.6 (Grading and Erosion Control), 7.4.7 (Stormwater), or 7.4.8 (Floodplains).
H. Alternative FBZ Compliance and Vesting:
1. An FBZ regulating plan may include procedures and criteria that allow an applicant to propose alternative FBZ compliance to the strict application of design standards included in the Regulating Plan. An FBZ regulating plan may provide for longer vesting of property rights to be allowed in conjunction with an approved Development Plan. (Ord. 23-03)