Glossary

Form-Based Code (FBC)

Also known as: FBC, SmartCode, FBC

A zoning code that regulates development primarily by building form, scale, and its relationship to the street and public realm — building placement, height, frontage type — rather than by the separation of land uses that conventional Euclidean zoning emphasizes.

Conventional zoning organizes a code around use categories with dimensional standards attached secondarily to each use district, which tends to produce single-use, auto-oriented development patterns; a form-based code inverts that emphasis, specifying a small number of standardized building types and frontage conditions — a build-to line rather than a setback minimum, a maximum rather than minimum parking requirement, required ground-floor transparency and active uses — while permitting a much broader mix of uses by right within each form-based zone, since compatibility is achieved through building form and street relationship rather than use separation. Because form-based codes rely heavily on a regulating plan and building-type standards illustrated graphically rather than through use tables and numeric formulas alone, they typically require more upfront municipal investment to adopt but can meaningfully compress entitlement timelines for compliant projects by converting what would otherwise be a discretionary use approval into a ministerial, form-compliant permit. Developers active in FBC jurisdictions should recognize that the code's flexibility on use is usually paired with materially stricter, non-negotiable form standards — building placement and frontage requirements in particular are often not subject to variance the way conventional dimensional standards are.