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City of St. Louis
ZOning UPgrade (ZOUP)
A Modern Code to Meet the Moment
Zoning Section + Planning and Urban Design Agency of St. Louis
TRANSIT
Q: Many people wanted to hear about how Zoning can support transit usage and access. What relationship does Zoning have to transit?
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Zoning can encourage compact, mixed-use development with transit-supportive levels of intensity.
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Zoning can help ensure buildings are oriented to the street and provide direct access to nearby transit stops.
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Where necessary, zoning can require private developments to provide space to accommodate new or expanded transit stops.
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Zoning can encourage shared parking or require that parking be located behind buildings, reducing pedestrian exposure to cars.
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Parking maximums (caps on the number of parking spaces) could also be applied in certain areas to encourage use of transit.
TECHNOLOGY
Q: What role does technology play in the administration and use of contemporary Zoning codes? What kinds of technology do other cities use?
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Many other cities have interactive web codes that allow easier reading of the zoning code online, including graphics and clickable links between sections of the zoning code, as well as the zoning map.
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AI can be used to assist the public in answering questions online, helping them understand the rules applied to a particular property or explain the submission process. AI has been used in some jurisdictions to provide initial review of applications to ensure they comply with the zoning code, although this likely still requires some human oversight.
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Most cities allow digital submission of drawings and documents, which St. Louis is preparing to do in the near future.
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St. Louis’s departments currently use several different internal property database systems that don’t interact smoothly. Ideally, these systems should be fully integrated.
TECHNOLOGY & FLOOR AREA RATIOS
Q: Can the zoning code have minimum FARs, so we don’t waste land on low-productivity land uses?
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The zoning code could contain these types of minimum requirements, although it may be preferable to focus on standards that more directly relate to built form, rather than Floor Area Ratios (FARs), which can be unpredictable in their outcome. Minimum height requirements might be an alternative approach in certain very high intensity areas like Downtown. The code will also prohibit auto-oriented uses in more urban or transit-served parts of the city to ensure that land is developed efficiently. In parts of the city where there’s not strong demand for development, instituting pedestrian-friendly design standards may be more important than ensuring a particular height or density.
AFFORDABILITY
Q: How does Zoning impact housing affordability? Are there changes to Zoning that can help ensure affordable housing?
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The ZOUP will examine opportunities to allow a greater diversity of housing types into St. Louis’s neighborhoods. These may include accessory dwelling units (ADUs), duplexes, townhouses or even small apartments, all of which tend to be more affordable than the single family detached houses that dominate many neighborhoods today.
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Affordability bonusing will also be explored. This practice allows greater height or density to be offered in exchange for a guarantee of affordability. It is challenging to implement, however, because bonuses must be carefully tuned to housing market demand, which is depressed in many parts of the city.
HISTORIC DISTRICTS, FORM-BASED CODES,
AND SPECIAL USE DISTRICTS
Q: St. Louis has things like Historic Districts, Form- Based Codes, and other kinds of special districts that set requirements for buildings and development. How do these districts interact with the Zoning code? How might these interact with a new Zoning code?
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Form-Based Codes represent a major advancement for St. Louis in regulating built form. However, they also have proven difficult to implement because of the large number of variances they generate. The ZOUP will look for opportunities to apply elements of the form-based code approach more widely, while avoiding standards that have proven to be problematic.
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The future role of the existing Form-Based Districts and other overlays will be determined through the ZOUP process and in conversation with neighborhood groups. They may be integrated into the new code, or remain as they are.
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Historic districts are situated outside of the scope of zoning and will not be altered by the ZOUP. However, the new code will need to look for opportunities for better alignment with historic districts, both in terms of zoning standards and clearer development review processes.
PARKING AND CAR-DEPENDENCY
Q: What is the relationship between Zoning and parking requirements or expectations? How can Zoning support St. Louis being a less car-dependent city?
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St. Louis’s current zoning code establishes minimum parking requirements for most zoning districts. The ZOUP will examine alternatives to these, which may include reductions in or elimination of requirements, especially in areas with good transit access.
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Following the lead of the SLUP, the ZOUP will regulate parking location. In some areas, this will require off-street parking to be located at the rear of the building or indoors.
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Also following the lead of the SLUP, the ZOUP will seek to promote “transit-oriented development” wherever possible, by allowing more density adjacent to existing and planned major transit routes and by encouraging transit-supportive land uses (like housing, office, retail, entertainment, etc). Perhaps more than anything else, this approach to development has been proven to reduce car dependency.
DECISION-MAKERS
Q: Zoning impacts everyone in St. Louis, so how do we make sure that the people with the most power and money don’t set all the rules?
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One of the central goals of the ZOUP is to reduce the current reliance on discretionary processes that ultimately benefit those who have greater resources. The new zoning code should be transparent and fairly applied to everyone.
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While there are many nuances still to be resolved, the ZOUP will be informed by the 2025 Strategic Land Use Plan (SLUP) and neighborhood planning processes, which include extensive public engagement processes and establish goals aimed at benefiting all residents of the city.
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There will be many opportunities for the public to engage with the ZOUP. These include attending public meetings and workshops, responding to surveys, and participating in the Advisory Committee, which will meet regularly and will include members from a variety of demographics and neighborhoods.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Q: How was the advisory committee selected?
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The Advisory Committee was selected from a pool of applicants by a lottery process. From an initial list of over 300 applicants who live in the City of St. Louis, this group of 12 was selected to include people with different experiences with zoning, including experience interacting with the code, being part of businesses, and involvement in their neighborhood, as well as individuals who participated in the SLUP steering committee. While not designed to be 100% representative of the entire population, the lottery draw was designed to ensure this group represents diverse geographies, racial backgrounds, and time in St. Louis, as well as ensuring that there are younger people on the committee who will hopefully be here for the future of St. Louis and observe the impacts of the new Zoning Code over time.