Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) is a compact land development pattern that includes a variety of housing types and land uses in a defined area. Public spaces, civic buildings and commercial establishments are located within walking distance of homes. Community identity, civic spaces and walkability are emphasized.

Summary

While land use planning and development since the mid-1900s have placed great emphasis on separating different land uses and serving cars and trucks, Traditional Neighborhood Development stresses the integration of different housing types and other land uses and the creation of paths, streets and lanes to equally serve pedestrians and the automobile.

Many TND ordinance provisions are crafted to recreate old-fashioned neighborhoods, where a compatible scale of homes, shops, eateries, libraries, churches, and other land uses are interspaced among grid-like streets, sidewalks, and village greens. The compact form promotes walking, biking, and use of public transportation to meet many of the residents’, visitors’, and workers’ daily or weekly needs (e.g., school, work, recreation, shopping).

TND can accommodate growth while leaving most farmland and open space intact. TND can occur in infill settings (i.e., where vacant or underdeveloped land exists within an urban or village area) and involve adaptive reuse of existing buildings. TND can also occur in “greenfields”, involving all-new construction on previously undeveloped land. Either setting may be appropriate if the area targeted for TND is designated for such development through a thoughtful, well-designed municipal or regional planning process.

Track Record

Zoning ordinance provisions have directed successful TNDs in many locations across the Commonwealth, ranging from urban infill projects such as those in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Mount Joy Borough (Lancaster County), to appropriately planned greenfields such as the New Daleville project in Londonderry Township (Chester County). The character of each of these projects reflects a number of variables, including the flexibility of the TND ordinance; level of risk accepted by the developer; tolerance of the community to the proposed development density; and, infrastructure availability (e.g., water, sewer, roads).

TND zoning ordinance provisions were first explicitly enabled in the 2000 amendments to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC). All Pennsylvania local governments are subject to the MPC except Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Typical End Users

TNDs are a form of development and therefore can be developer-driven. However, TNDs, like other land developments are regulated by local governments – i.e., cities, townships, boroughs, and counties in certain cases – through their zoning, subdivision and land development ordinances. Nonprofits, educators, individuals, developers, and/or businesses all can advocate that government officials plan for, and enact, TND ordinance provisions to facilitate TND.

Conservation Impact

Using the TND tool to accommodate much of a community’s planned residential and non-residential development can relieve development pressure on the farmlands, woodlands, meadows, etc., desired by the community for long-term conservation.
TND ordinance provisions can be crafted to insure that these new developments meet a wide range of conservation-related objectives, such as: providing for subsurface disposal of stormwater runoff and treated wastewater; incorporation of community gardens; providing for both active and passive recreational opportunities; and, protecting key natural and cultural resources in the developed area (e.g., specimen trees, stream buffers, wetlands, and historic structures).
The conservation benefits of the TND tool can be greatly enhanced by adding the incentive of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) to the TND ordinance provisions. That is, a TND developer may be encouraged to purchase TDRs from areas of a municipality or region desired for permanent conservation and then use those TDRs to enhance the development potential of a planned TND project.

What You'll Need

Incorporating the TND tool within a municipality’s zoning ordinance requires strong political and community support for planned growth. A strong real estate market, and developers who are committed to the TND model, are also necessary for the realization of TND projects.
Although not essential, TNDs most often require fairly large tracts of vacant or under-developed lands, ideally with immediate or planned access to both public water and sewer, along with adequate roadway capacities leading to and from the TND. Tracts of land in close proximity to, or within, urban areas are highly desirable for accommodating TNDs. Public transit availability is also highly desirable to help serve the transportation needs of future residents, visitors, and employees of uses established within the TND.
The use of a professional planning consultant with both community visioning and TND ordinance writing experience is desirable, particularly for pro-active municipalities and regions, which wish to develop a master plan and TND ordinance provisions in advance of receiving an actual TND proposal.

Obstacles and Challenges

The most frequent obstacle in enacting TND provisions within a municipal zoning ordinance is a lack of community support for relatively dense development. This obstacle can be overcome through pro-active planning and ordinance development by a municipality or region prior to actually receiving a TND proposal and extensive community outreach and education during the design of the TND ordinance provisions (e.g., visioning sessions, neighborhood meetings, development illustrations).
If a municipality or region has not identified appropriate TND areas in advance, a developer might propose a TND with all the “right” ingredients from a land-use and design perspective, but might propose it for the core of an agricultural area, sensitive headwaters area, or other inappropriate area. This challenge can be addressed by a municipality or region being more pro-active in its planning work, and establishing areas where TND proposals would likely receive municipal and community support.
Obstacles often associated with a developer’s decision to propose a TND are the time, and risk, in obtaining support of the community and its municipal officials for a TND ordinance amendment. Ideally, this obstacle can be overcome by a municipality being more pro-active in its planning and ordinance work, and establishing the TND provisions in advance of any TND development proposals.

Contents of Main Description

Introduction
TND Contrasted with Conservation by Design
Overlay or Stand-Alone Zoning District
TND and Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs)
Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code
Certification
Carbon Reduction Benefits
Doing TND Right
History
Organization of the TND Ordinance Provisions
Implementation Steps as part of TND Ordinance Provisions

Introduction

Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) refers to:

“an area of land developed for a compatible mixture of residential units for various income levels and nonresidential commercial and workplace uses, including some structures that provide for a mix of uses within the same building. Residences, shops, offices, workplaces, public buildings, and parks are interwoven within the neighborhood so that all are within relatively close proximity to each other. Traditional neighborhood development is relatively compact, limited in size and oriented toward pedestrian activity. It has an identifiable center and a discernible edge. The center of the neighborhood is in the form of a public park, commons, plaza, square or prominent intersection of two or more major streets. Generally, there is a hierarchy of streets laid out in a rectilinear or grid pattern of interconnecting streets and blocks that provides multiple routes from origins to destinations and are appropriately designed to serve the needs of the pedestrians and vehicles equally.” (Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, 53 P.S. §10101 et seq., Act 1988-170, as amended)

In other words, TND is a form of land use organized in a way that promotes compact, mixed-use, and non-automobile dependent land development patterns. TND can be developer-driven, and results, in part, from compliance with specific zoning ordinance provisions established by the governing body that are used to guide such development. If backed by sound comprehensive planning and zoning, a TND can attractively accommodate development in planned growth areas, relieving farmland and other natural or cultural resource areas from development pressures and facilitating their conservation.

At the national and regional levels, commonly cited TND projects include: Kentlands (Gaithersburg, Maryland), Seaside (Florida), Harbor Town, (Memphis, Tennessee), and Celebration (Florida). Notable examples of TND projects are found throughout Pennsylvania and include: Summerset at Frick Park (City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County); Lantern Hill (Doylestown Borough, Bucks County); Eagleview (Uwchlan Township, Chester County); New Daleville (Londonderry Township, Chester County); Florin Hill (Mt. Joy Borough, Lancaster County); Millcreek (West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County); and, Veranda (East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County).

TND Contrasted with Conservation by Design

The TND tool differs from the Conservation by Design tool, which protects a parcel’s significant natural and cultural resources through substantial open space set-asides coupled with the careful clustering of residential dwellings, preserving the overall density of development allowed to a developer under typical zoning ordinances. Unlike typical Conservation by Design ordinances, TND ordinances typically require a broad mix of land uses, a wide range of residential densities and non-residential intensities, a development design with a more grid-like street pattern, and use of an urban “infill” location or a greenfield immediately adjoining an urban area.

Overlay or Stand-Alone Zoning District

TND can be incorporated into a municipal or joint zoning ordinance as an overlay district, offering landowners that own tracts so zoned the option of establishing land uses subject to the TND overlay provisions. TND can also be applied as a stand-alone zoning district, in which all permitted uses are subject to the TND ordinance provisions.

TND and Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs)

The conservation benefits of the TND tool can be greatly enhanced by adding the incentive of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) to the TND ordinance provisions. That is, a TND developer may be encouraged to purchase TDRs from areas of a municipality or region desired for permanent conservation and then use those TDRs to enhance the development potential of a planned TND project. Instead of “giving away density for free,” the TND ordinance provisions can be crafted such that the upper ranges of residential densities, or of commercial square footages, for example, would only be allowed subject to the use of TDRs. The TND ordinance provisions addressing development design (see below) can help to insure that development in the TDR receiving area is consistent with the community development objectives.

Just as TDR can maximize the conservation utility of TND, TND can maximize the conservation utility of TDR.

Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code

TND zoning ordinance provisions were first explicitly enabled in the 2000 amendments to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC). (All Pennsylvania local governments are subject to the MPC except Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.)

The MPC requires that a comprehensive plan, and the ordinances that help to implement it, provide for all possible land uses. Through use of a TND, many of these land uses can be suitably accommodated within a single defined growth area or portion thereof, (e.g., various residential types, retail, commercial/office, even certain types of light industrial).

Many zoning and subdivision ordinances do not permit the development of TNDs because of the because of the inclusion in these ordinances of requirements for large lots, large building setbacks from lot lines, wide streets, and separation of both types and densities of land uses. These TND-unfriendly requirements are allowed by the MPC and encouraged by decades of practice.

Certification

Certification provides a new marketing opportunity for developers of TNDs. In fall 2009, the U.S. Green Building Council, in collaboration with the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council, launched the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System. “LEED-ND” integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national certification system for neighborhood design to promote compact, walkable, vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods with good connections to nearby communities. To quote the U.S. Green Building Council, “LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a development's location and design meet accepted high levels of environmentally responsible, sustainable development.”

Carbon Reduction Benefits

TNDs can yield greenhouse gas reduction benefits. For example, the compact mix of land uses promotes walking and other alternative modes of travel other than the automobile. Depending on how the TND ordinance provisions are drafted, open space within a TND can be used to grow and harvest farm products instead of relying on such products being shipped thousands of miles to serve TND residents, restaurants, etc.

Doing TND Right

Without proper “advance” planning, a TND proposal runs the risk of being opposed by a bordering neighborhood, citizens’ group, or municipal officials. Poorly crafted TND ordinance provisions can permit development in inappropriate areas of the municipality; lead to developments that are inconsistent with community development objectives; and/or, permit developments which are incompatible with surrounding land uses. Such TNDs may actually leave the community or its municipal officials with a very bad taste for future TND projects.

History

The idea of returning to the traditional neighborhood form arose in the 1980s and grew in popularity in the 1990s. What has led to this vision is a dissatisfaction of some people with some of the by-products of several decades of suburban development patterns. Separation of uses, over-reliance on the automobile, traffic congestion, and social isolation are among the problems that New Urbanism is proposing to solve. The historic antecedents of TNDs are old towns such as Alexandria, Virginia, as well as early suburbs such as Roland Park in Baltimore, Mariemont in Cincinnati, and Pasadena, California, while the antecedents of the new towns and PUDs of the 1960s and 1970s (Columbia, Maryland, for example) were the English Garden Cities and the Greenbelt towns in the U.S.

[Source: National Association of Homebuilders, 9/26/2009, http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=17372]

Organization of the TND Ordinance Provisions

Typical TND ordinance provisions should result in development that (adapted from Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company):

● Has a discernible center. This is often a square or green, and sometimes a busy or memorable street intersection. If planned, a transit stop would be located at this center.

● Locates most of the residential dwellings within a five-minute walk, or ¼ of a mile, of this neighborhood center.

● Includes a variety of residential dwelling types, such that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy, can find places to live.

● Supports shops and offices that supply the weekly needs of a household.

● Locates an elementary school close enough so that most children can walk from where they live; similarly, there are small playgrounds quite near every dwelling.

● Uses streets to form a connected network, providing a variety of itineraries and dispersing traffic congestion. These streets are relatively narrow and shaded by trees that help to slow traffic and create a safe environment for pedestrians and bicyclists.

● Locates buildings close to the street, creating an “outdoor room” and sense of place by framing the sidewalk with street trees and building walls.

● Situates parking lots and garage doors at the rear of the buildings, usually accessed by alleys. On-street parking is desirable to help with creation of the outdoor room and feeling of pedestrian safety.

● Reserves certain prominent sites for civic buildings, such as those for meeting, education, religion, or culture; these are situated at the termination of street vistas or at the neighborhood center.

An integral component of the TND ordinance provisions is its design criteria – these are most effective when provided as both narrative and graphic standards that clearly portray how the above considerations should be met if a project proposed pursuant to the TND ordinance provisions is to be approved.

The TND ordinance provisions should also include, or address, the following components: purpose and need; applicability and criteria for qualifying uses under the ordinance; the actual uses allowed; “area and bulk” (i.e., the size, dimension, location, etc. of building structures); design standards, as previously described; and, supplemental criteria such as whether modifications are allowed and the relationship between the TND provisions and other applicable ordinance provisions (e.g., signs, parking).

Implementation Steps as part of TND Ordinance Provisions

Enacting a zoning ordinance amendment to “pro-actively” establish the TND tool should involve most, if not all, of the following basic steps:

Through a comprehensive planning process, determine the community’s desire to accommodate new developments in the form of TNDs. This includes, but is not limited to: delineation of critical natural resources for permanent protection or for avoidance if the TND will be located in a potential development area; prediction of future population and commercial growth; identification of appropriate growth areas to accommodate such development; and, evaluation of existing and future infrastructure (e.g., water, sewer, roads) needs to support such development.
Additional focused planning and community participation (numerous venues and multiple times): given a possible new way of thinking represented by the TND tool in a given community or region, citizens, landowners, and other officials (e.g., even the municipal planning commission) should have ample opportunity to participate in the design of the TND ordinance provisions. First, participants should be provided a wide range of opportunities to learn about the TND tool and its benefits. For example, this education could occur through various planning workshops, municipal newsletters, municipal websites, etc. Second, participants should help to develop a conceptual community or village plan that ultimately has support through community consensus. This plan will be used as a guide in the crafting of TND ordinance provisions. Developing the conceptual plan is most effectively accomplished using visioning events or a “charrette” – the resulting TND ordinance provisions ensure consistency between actual TND developments and the community’s desired vision.
Writing, adoption, and enactment of the TND ordinance provisions: these typically occur with the assistance of a land use planner and/or municipal solicitor, and are directly guided by the municipality’s elected and appointed officials, and any appropriate staff and/or other municipal consultants (e.g., municipal engineer, solicitor). This is also the appropriate step to develop the incentives related to TDR s within the TND ordinance.
“Tweaking:” any innovative ordinance will need minor (or sometimes, major) revisions to ensure that it continues to meet land preservation and other community development objectives over time. Closely related to tweaking is interpretation of the TND ordinance provisions’ intentions and goals – often, implementation will rest in the hands of the municipality’s code enforcement officer. Rightly so, this person may not have had prior or extensive experience with TND ordinance provisions, especially fairly technical or subjective design criteria and standards. Accordingly, it is recommended that, post-enactment, the municipality seek the continued assistance of land use planners or other design professionals to review the actual application of the TND ordinance when projects are proposed.

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