The Village of Spring Hill Overlay Zoning

Welcome to the blog

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Welcome to the Village of Spring Hill overlay zoning blog. This web site will host a number of topics and respond to frequently asked questions regarding the zoning and subdivision regulations. Topics are arranged with the highest level information and subjects with the most general appeal first. More detailed and specialized topics are located further down. Content will continue to be added and refined, so be sure to check back often. See the links below and to the right to download the draft ordinances as well as copies of The Blueprint for Spring Hill, the proposed master plan.

Why new regulations?

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The proposed zoning and subdivision regulations add an "overlay" classification to three small commercial areas within the Village of Spring Hill. Within these overlay zones, many of the City's existing requirements are replaced with new regulations that help create a walkable, "main street" format. Key features of these new regulations are street-oriented buildings (buildings placed much closer to the street) with parking to the side and rear, buildings of a scale that encourage pedestrian use, and a series of interconnected roads and alleys to enable traffic to flow throughout the commercial areas.

The City's current zoning regulations actually prohibit creation of the main street format that is envisioned in The Blueprint for Spring Hill---a concept that has been successfully implemented in hundreds of communities nationwide. It is therefore imperative for these changes to be adopted by the City in order to begin to implement the Blueprint's vision.

Where did these regulations come from?

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The proposed regulations were drafted by Dover, Kohl & Partners in close coordination with the City of Mobile and the Village of Spring Hill, Inc. Dover-Kohl served as town planners for the community's planning phase in Fall 2007 and created The Blueprint for Spring Hill based on extensive input from residents, business owners, developers, property owners, and City officials.

The proposed land use regulations are a direct translation of the Blueprint's first principles and conceptual designs into actionable City codes. These regulations also draw from Dover-Kohl's extensive experience working with New Urbanist communities nationwide.

What is an overlay and where does it apply?

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An overlay is a specially defined area that consists of specific parcels carrying with them certain requirements in addition to, or in place of, current City of Mobile zoning regulations. The City has a number of other overlay zones for things like historic preservation and business improvement. It is very important to understand that the proposed overlay does not apply City wide or even to the majority of the area within Spring Hill.

For the Village of Spring Hill, the proposed overlay---officially called the "Traditional Center District Overlay"---applies to three limited areas at the intersections of Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue, Bit & Spur and Old Shell Road, and Museum Drive and McGregor Avenue. The exact parcels that are covered are shown on a "regulating plan," basically a set of maps, that are included in the zoning ordinance. Reduced size copies are shown below:

Overall Regulating Plan for the TCDO:

Old Shell & McGregor:

Bit and Spur & Old Shell:

Museum Drive & McGregor:

When reviewing these maps it becomes clear that there are three different colors; each indicates a different zone with different requirements (discussed in other posts). The TCDO has three zones to correspond to the level of "main street" feel or urban-ness.

The darkest shade of purple indicates the "Village Center" type, the middle shade represents "Neighborhood Center," and the lighter shade is "Neighborhood General." In terms of the conceptual drawings shown in The Blueprint for Spring Hill, the community's master plan, these roughly translate into the Old Shell and McGregor intersection, Bit & Spur and Old Shell intersection, and Museum Drive neighborhood, respectively.

What you also see on these maps are two types of road frontage indicated: primary and secondary. Each has its own requirements as defined in the ordinances. There are also planned roads (Rights of Way, or R.O.W.) that match those of the Blueprint.

What's in it for developers and property owners?

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Community benefits from redevelopment are clear: walkable streets, a more vibrant commercial district, safer pedestrian interaction with traffic, greatly improved aesthetics, etc. The next question becomes how to make it economically viable for developers and property owners. First, and most importantly, no one is required to tear down their existing building and start fresh under the new rules. Existing structures and uses are grandfathered in, and new rules only trigger when rebuilding or expanding square footage. Redevelopment will happen when the market is ready on a parcel by parcel basis. Some properties will go sooner and reap the early benefits of the community's interest and goodwill; others will only follow after the market potential is well proven or as newer buildings begin to age.

In terms of the actual ordinance requirements, developers and property owners who take advantage of the new regulations will benefit in several important ways:

Expanded building coverage. Significantly more of a parcel can be built out than under today's regulations due to increased coverage percentages and smaller set-backs; this translates into additional square footage that can be rented
Reduced parking requirements. Especially for smaller parcels, this also allows more of the property to be built out
Additional allowed uses. In the Neighborhood Center types, non-conforming properties (those still zoned Residential or B-1) will be effectively up-zoned to Transitional Business (T-B) uses
Potential for shared parking. The ordinances have provisions for businesses to share parking which is clearly in abundance at the current time; as redevelopment occurs, structured parking may be financially viable and could be shared by property owners
Increased retail potential. Higher density brings with it additional retail sales, especially as the district evolves into a park-once, shop-many format; increased sales drive higher rents and faster pay-back
Residential and office demand. The Blueprint for Spring Hill analyzed current and future needs for residential (condo) and office space within the Spring Hill community; denser redevelopment of mixed-use facilities helps satisfy these needs and generate higher income

That's just a high-level summary. Additional benefits are discussed in the detailed topics elsewhere in the blog.

What are the main differences?

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The following table summarizes key differences between the three new zoning classifications within the TCDO. Differences between these new types and the existing City zoning requirements are discussed in each relevant topic on the blog (some are forthcoming).

Click for larger versions.

What about building placement and scale?

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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.

Parking...everyone's favorite topic

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First things first. We can't do without parking. The question then becomes how to deal with parking in such a way that it doesn't destroy the aesthetics of our place. Today's Spring Hill commercial district is a sea of parking spaces with asphalt from one corner to another. While being convenient for stop-in traffic, it actually discourages people from wanting to spend time shopping, working, and dining in Spring Hill. To make matters worse, every single parcel has excess parking, so there is tremendous waste when viewed district wide. The high number of vacant properties is testament that the suburban model isn't viable in the heart of Spring Hill. Property values are already too high to allow for excess surface parking. Something's got to give.

We've all seen the before and after computer renderings that Dover, Kohl & Partners prepared during the community planning process, and the results are amazing. The most visually different component in those images is the change in parking. Parking lots are located behind buildings, and on-street parking provides a traffic calming and pedestrian friendly form. As discussed in other blog entries, building placement toward the street means that parking, by default, is located to the rear. And as the Blueprint shows, street parking is planned for both Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue. Some of the planned street changes are already being discussed with the City.

In terms of the number of parking spaces, two things are important to note. First, current required minimums generate too much parking in Spring Hill. Second, the process for sharing parking between properties is very cumbersome. To address these, the proposed zoning sets as maximums the values that the City has as minimums elsewhere. Generally speaking, these are 1 space per 300 square feet of commercial space (or 1 for 100 square feet for restaurants). The proposed overlay recommends removing the minimums altogether---i.e., no required parking---although there are some ongoing discussions with the City about using the Hank Aaron Loop requirements as minimums. These are essentially half of the normal values (1 per 600 square feed). Needless to say, the minimums will be significantly less, which is especially beneficial for some of the smaller parcels in Spring Hill that have a very difficult time meeting current parking requirements and providing enough usable commercial space.

So another often-asked question is why the Village is requiring parking garages---as well as who is going to pay for them. The answer is that no parking garages are required, ever. The plan shows several parking structures, and at some point in time, the market may find it economically viable to build them. But that will only happen if/when the market is ready. If property values continue to rise and commercial space is worth significantly more than it is today, the cost of surface parking will become prohibitive and a deck or garage may become justified. The point is that we can't presuppose what the exact arrangement between commercial space and parking availability will look like ten or twenty years from now. What we can do, and what's done in the overlay, is to allow structured parking without maximums so long as it's used as a district solution. The overlay also allows for and encourages shared parking and includes on-street parking to augment privately owned space.

As a point of reference, Fairhope's parking regulations for its central business district have no minimum number of required spaces. Additionally, they set a maximum value at 20% above the spaces required elsewhere in the city (and that additional 20% has to be constructed of pervious materials). See Fairhope's regulations for more information.

What about building style and architecture?

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The overlay district does not concern itself with the architecture or style of the buildings nor does it dictate building materials, colors, or ornamentation. There is no architectural review board or other body that reviews plans for this type of compliance. What is included in the overlay is there for pedestrian safety and comfort---again, to encourage pedestrian use of the community centers.

The first requirement worth discussing is facade transparency, which is fancy terminology for windows. In order to provide security for the streets (by people inside the buildings) as well as for merchandising purposes, the overlay requires that between 20% and 75% of each floor be windows. For storefronts, the ground floor requirement is 50% to 75%. While these requirements seem very technical, they would appear very standard and intuitive to someone looking at an example (see below). Window requirements also help prevent blank walls which greatly discourage pedestrian use.

Another area of consideration is doors. The overlay requires that larger buildings have storefront entrances at least every 50 feet. This ensures a mixture of uses and prevents expanses of blank walls. The code also requires that primary entrances face the street, again, to ensure that the buildings maintain a relationship with the sidewalk / street and to the pedestrians that use it.

In order to protect pedestrians from the elements (mainly sun and rain here in Mobile), each building should include appropriate shading via awnings, marquees, balconies, colonnades, galleries, or arcades. Each has a different dimensional standard, but the code doesn't dictate a specific type or architectural style. The proposed overlay also includes requirements for lighting as well as facade coverage exceptions for forecourts and other facade plane variations. There are also a number of smaller requirements that would only apply in select cases, so it's worth reading through the code to pick those out.

The main point to make, and one that has been made in other posts, is that the code's concern comes from the building's relationship to the sidewalk and street and to ensuring appropriate pedestrian use. The requirements about building form are actually very minimal and only serve to define the basic envelope of the structure. A great variety of styles and architectural elements will undoubtedly leverage these exact same requirements. The Blueprint does contain some excellent guidance for architects and developers who want to achieve a traditional main street feel with their buildings: