A CodeNEXT Explainer, Part 1: Transects and the form-based code

CodeNEXT has been out for a couple of weeks and even many land use professionals do not yet know what’s in the code. I doubt that anyone outside the coders themselves and (I hope) the planning staff has mastered CodeNEXT’s nuances and complexity.

I have not become a CodeNEXT expert in two weeks. But after spending more time than I’ll admit reading the code, both alone and in groups, I think I can shed light on some of the regulations. In this part, I will take a stab at explaining CodeNEXT’s transect zones.

I have to make an important caveat. The planning staff has released the draft code whole without any detailed explainers of its own. There has been no public input session other than the initial roll out event, when no one knew enough to ask intelligent questions. The form-based code contains some fuzzy concepts. The public has not been given a chance to ask for clarifications (or, at least, none have been given to date). Nor has the public been able just to ask a warm body, “Did you really mean this?” It’s possible I’ve misinterpreted something. If so, I’ll revise this to correct misinterpretations or errors as I discover them.