\Preface

Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Buena Vista enjoys a beautiful setting, a rich diversity of people and neighborhoods, cultural and educational opportunities, and a tradition of active participation by its citizens in recreational and service related activities. It is quiet and safe community where you can imagine children growing up on every street. Now, the community faces the challenge of preserving and enhancing its positive attributes, and the quality of life that they offer, in a time of growth and change. This document establishes design standards to protect the quality of life in Buena Vista while allowing it to evolve into a truly great community of the 21st century.

A.

Intention. Appendix A and the following appendixes have been approved by the Buena Vista City Council and are intended to aid citizens, builders, developers, designers, and the city of Buena Vista in the process of protecting and modifying the built environment within the city. By focusing on basic design principles, regulations, patterns, and standards this document is designed to protect the value and the quality of the neighborhood and to help situate the social, economic, and environmental health of the community. This document is not intended to address issues of ownership or land use. Instead, this document focuses on the design of the built environment. These standards are not intended to restrict or limit imagination, innovation, or architectural style, but instead, provide a framework of guiding rules that ensure the compatibility of building forms in relationship to massing, form, scale, texture, and material.

B.

Guiding Principles. In order to create, conserve and encourage a more habitable urban environment within the Seminary Hill District of Buena Vista, the following five principles are the foundation of this document:

1.

Livability. The creation and conservation of livable streets and neighborhoods. Most people will agree that they want to have livable streets and neighborhoods, but what does that mean? While difficult to quantify and define, "livable" is described by the American Planning Association as a place where people can bring up children, have privacy, sleep, eat, relax, and rest. It implies a place that is well managed and relatively devoid of nuisance, overcrowding, noise, danger, air pollution, dirt, and trash. During public meetings held in Buena Vista, the citizens described the qualities that add to the livability of their community as: a safe environment, pedestrian friendly streets, quiet, established neighborhoods, tree lined streets, access to natural beauty, a strong connection to downtown areas, and a sense of history. Furthermore, the citizens also described a list of attributes that detract from the livability of their community as: traffic and street problems, vacant stores, loss of landscaping and street trees, high percentage of heavy vehicles on roads, sidewalks that are not well maintained, new structures that are not compatible with the neighborhood, overgrown lots, lack of communication and understanding about current and future development, construction of housing that "average people" can afford, lack of restaurants and businesses, lack of retirement facilities, and inadequate zoning processes.

2.

Critical mass. The creation of a minimum level of human and building density within an intensity of land uses. Urban fabric requires people to live, work, play, learn, and do all the things that people do in close proximity to each other in order to foster human exchange, public life, diversity, and community. Neighborhoods must be more than a stage set without people. There must be a critical mass of people that spend a lot of their time in the neighborhood, including time spent at home.

3.

Integration. The encouragement of living, working, shopping, public, spiritual, and recreational uses in reasonable, walk-able proximity to each other.

4.

Positive urban places. Manmade environments, particularly buildings, that define public space in a manner that creates a place, as opposed to buildings that, for the most part, sit in space.

5.

Organic Growth. Many separate buildings with complex arrangements and relationships built over time, as opposed to a few, large buildings built all at once.

The underlying concept of allowing a community to grow organically is based upon the recognition that the community is alive that it will grow and evolve over time. Growth that occurs in numerous small increments ensures the stability of the whole. As each proposed project applies for zoning approval, it shall be examined in relationship to the whole. In this way, two types of projects are discouraged: long-term, overly specific master plans, and extremely large projects.

C.

Master plans. This principle of organic growth precludes zoning approval of a master plan without reserving the right and expectation of the zoning administrator to review each structure within that plan for approval at the point in time that the land owner is ready and committed to implement it. For example, a specific 20-year master plan could outline the construction of three specific buildings to be constructed every five years for the next 20 years. This approach is valid for fund raising, planning, and visioning purposes. While this document is not intended to prevent landowners from developing a vision, such a vision cannot be considered zoning approval. This latter approach would fail to take into account that the needs of the landowner, developer, and/or the community could significantly change during that 20-year period. The preferred master planning approach would be to have a more generalized vision for the long-term. That vision could then be developed into successive short-term master plans, not to exceed a five to seven year time frame each. While each shorter-term master plan cannot guarantee zoning approval of any specific project within the master plan, it would allow the city and the landowner to establish some common guidelines and understandings to work within. As each specific project within the plan was to be implemented, it would be independently presented and evaluated in the city zoning approval process. This preferred approach allows both the landowner and the city maximum flexibility to respond to external forces (i.e., economic and social forces), as well as, providing an environment for all parties to learn from the previous project in the master plan. Applying for zoning approval for a specific project requires the submission of all documents necessary for a building permit. Master plans generally do not provide this level of detail about a structure to be constructed.

D.

Extremely large projects. This principle of organic growth is incompatible with extremely large, single building projects; instead, such projects may be authorized only through a conditional zoning process. For example, a landowner might wish zoning approval for a two million square foot parking garage. This principle would suggest a solution to incrementally build several smaller parking garages, and allowing each of the smaller garages to be built in response to its surroundings. This allows a greater mix of uses within the community and also lowers the financial risks involved in any single increment of construction. Please note, that large structures are not forbidden by this document; but they require a more rigorous review and approval process in order to protect the neighborhood.