What about building placement and scale?

Building placement is one of the main differences between the overlay and the City's existing zoning codes. The goal of creating walkable, main street style format as described in The Blueprint for Spring Hill drives the need for change. Important considerations are:

• Placement. Buildings need to be located close to the street, abutting a well sized sidewalk
• Coverage. Buildings need to form a street wall, keeping openings between buildings as small as possible to allow for access to rear parking areas, alleys, etc.
• Scale. Buildings need to be of a height that creates the feel of an outside "room" around the street and its sidewalks; in most cases, the necessary scale is two or three stories
  

These three goals drive requirements in the TCDO code that are different from the City's current zoning. To address building placement, front setbacks are small (12 or 15 feet for commercial) and require a building to be built within a small range of this theoretical build-to line. Facade coverage is also specified, as a percentage of the primary road frontage with exceptions for access to parking. For Village Center the required coverage is 80%, and for Neighborhood Center it is 70%. In terms of scale, the Village Center and Neighborhood Center types both require buildings to be at least two stories.

These sets of requirements are the most fundamental in terms of shifting from a suburban (some would say sprawl) model to a "traditional" village or neighborhood center style. They help create a sense of place that isn't centered exclusively on automobile access. While the automobile is still important, "place" is first. Access and parking are managed around the desired form.