Chapter Four
URBAN DESIGN

Urban design is a process that is implemented by cities and towns to develop a relationship between people and their physical environment, with a goal of the municipality being both functionally and aesthetically pleasing. Good urban design can facilitate social health and opportunity.

Urban design standards are usually established and implemented through a city’s zoning and development ordinances, sign regulations, site plan review, and other review and permitting procedures. While developers usually retain the greatest influence over the design of their projects, a city can directly influence land use, architecture, open space, street and transportation improvements, and landscaping of private development through urban design guidelines.

The goals and policies of the various elements of the West Jordan General Plan have been established to encourage orderly growth and development. The urban design goals, policies and standards are then used as a tool to synthesize these other elements and create a cohesive form and identity for the City.

For urban design to be meaningful, it must define the design objectives of the City and incorporate the process for making decisions regarding the City’s future character. The process must determine how individual parts of the city interact to create an identifiable image and character that helps to achieve the goals and vision of the community.

The Urban Design Element focuses on three major areas - urban form, neighborhood character, and implementation of goals and policies. The three are closely interrelated and must be considered within a comprehensive urban design framework. For example, initiating an open space plan that has little relationship to other urban design components, such as streetscapes, neighborhoods, and linkages, will do little to improve the quality of the urban environment.

Urban Form

The physical shape and appearance of a city is its urban form. This form is determined by topography and other natural features such as rivers and drainages; the arrangement, size, shape, pattern, visual quality of buildings or developed areas; the spaces surrounding them; and the transportation system serving them. While the natural forms of the city are not easily altered, a great deal can be done with man-made elements to enhance a city’s environment.

City topography and natural features obviously have a great deal of influence on its form. Some past development practices (e.g. piping of creeks and drainages, vegetation removal and massive grading of development sites) have tended to erode a city’s relationship to these distinctive natural features. If this tendency continues, West Jordan may lose much of what makes it unique today.

An effective urban design policy suggests ways to create a more efficient, attractive, and interesting place to live and visit within the context of what is unique and character- defining while preserving as much of the natural topography in its original form as possible.

A strong urban form is an important economic development tool. Businesses, including the convention and tourism industry, are attracted to and retained by sound urban environments. In cities throughout the United States, city officials, business organizations and residents have effectively used their urban environment and form in promoting their cities as good places to work, reside, and engage in recreational activities. The manner in which neighborhoods of all types are interconnected both functionally and aesthetically influences a city’s form. This in turn affects a city’s ability to attract and retain businesses and residents.

The tendency in an urban design program is to look at individual issues separately rather than as an interconnected network. Land use, scale of development, transportation systems, site design, pedestrian open space, etc., are all very much related to each other and must be considered as an interrelated group which affect the city’s present and future development form and character.

West Jordan’s urban design policy must be able to respond to the ever-changing marketplace and the special characteristics of different areas of the City. At the same time, individual project designers must be allowed to be innovative in designing projects that fit the goals and vision of the community and how it wishes to grow and develop in the future.

Neighborhood Character

West Jordan faces three principal challenges in making the most of its future:

In preserving neighborhood character, the term “neighborhood” takes on its broadest definition. Neighborhoods are not just residential. West Jordan also includes commercial, office, industrial, and even emerging transit-oriented and mixed-use neighborhoods.

Neighborhood character is important for many reasons other than nostalgia or historic significance. Preservation of distinctive buildings helps ensure the conservation of unique characteristics and contributes to the establishment of a sense of place. For the designer of new buildings, this information can be a valuable resource for making new buildings fit with existing neighborhood character. All of this enhances the city’s richness and preserves a history of changing architectural styles through the years.

Through establishment of design compatibility ordinances and master plans, property owners in small geographic areas are given additional tools for conserving, revitalizing, and generally upgrading their neighborhoods. The types of features regulated by compatibility ordinances may include items such as views, specific land uses, architectural forms and styles, landscape standards, and site design characteristics.

Neighborhoods each have special characteristics that distinguish them from one another. Attributes such as open spaces link areas together and make the important connections that build communities by bringing people together in appealing places. Architecture, building placement and density, open spaces, vehicle and pedestrian circulation networks, street design, and landscape character, among other things, play important roles in creating neighborhood character. An important goal of this Urban Design Element is to identify areas, features, and qualities that define West Jordan’s character, and then build on these elements while promoting smart design in new areas of the City.

In summary, urban form provides the physical structure and framework of streets, blocks, districts and neighborhoods that enhances community character. Generally, urban form deals with the larger scale elements of a community. Neighborhood character focuses on the details of urban form and builds on the basic framework and structure, and goes beyond to create places that are special, memorable, enjoyable, livable, and attractive.

The Urban Design Element is arguably the most important element of the General Plan because it pulls together all of the “big ideas” from the other elements and melds them into a common vision of community.

Elements of Urban Design