City of Beaufort and the region looks towards a new planning method

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Beaufort's iconic Bay Street complements surrounding residential addresses, something planners say would be impossible today.

"From Based Code."

The concept traces back to ancient China and Rome. It was also used in pivotal city planning from the 16th to 19th centuries. And then somewhere in the 20th century folks stopped caring so much about how you designed a building and more how you intended to use it.

And so the thinking goes that cities turned from being dense residential, walking areas into urban sprawl where you needed to drive from pocket of residential to pocket of business. 

As that realization sweeps the country, several Beaufort area cities are looking to turn back the clock to recapture what has been lost in city planning. 

The City of Beaufort, Port Royal, and Beaufort County are all working together to develop plans that allow for better intermingling of living and work spaces to reduce traffic problems and increase visitor appeal.

Today The Island Packet has a trio of articles on the subject that aim to help you understand what's happening and what planners are thinking.

The first article focusses on the big picture of form based codes and how they'd be used locally, the second looks at how such a discussion unfolded on Daufuskie Island, and the third is table of what parts of the region have such codes and how they're implemented

As a microcosm of this debate you can also look to the conversation underway about redoing the zoning on Bladen Street.