Smart Code Will Anchor 'Transect' Concept

Smart Code, due out this spring from Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. and Municipal Code Corp., will provide a basis from which smarter zoning codes can be adopted by local officials, says Demetri Baches, a director at DPZ, the Miami-based architecture and town-planning firm.

"It is a template, written in ordinance form, that needs adjusting locally," Baches says. "It has the nuts and bolts of what makes smart growth and New Urbanism possible."

All the Smart Code is based on a concept developed by DPZ, called the transect, that defines zones of development from rural to dense urban spaces. Each zone has different development "DNA" as defined by the transect.

"If most of your community is suburban sprawl, the new code is intended to lay down a new genetic code," says Baches. "It will help create areas that are town centers. It's just like any other zoning ordinance - you apply it to make change."