St. Louis County hopes to reduce the 'sprawl trend' : Business

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Earlier this summer, St. Louis County made some of the most significant changes to its zoning codes since it began regulating land use.

As part of a package of “sustainable” code changes, it’s now easier to put solar panels on your house or a wind turbine on your property. The county cut by 20 percent the number of parking spaces required for retail developments and added landscaping requirements to reduce stormwater pollution.

But to St. Louis County Planning Director Glenn Powers, the biggest change was the passage of new “form-based” codes that will give developers more flexibility, and hopefully, lead to the building of denser, pedestrian-friendly communities. . . .

What form-based code says is, build it kind of to look like this, but build it to be multiple-use. Put different things — put commercial and workplaces and residential — in close proximity. Make it more walkable, make it pedestrian scale. . . .

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St. Louis County hopes to reduce the 'sprawl trend' : Business