The purpose of this Part 2 is to provide zoning
regulations and design standards that are to be used in combination
with the open space and circulation plans to promote the creation
and sustainability of mixed-use walkable communities and neighborhoods
along the Route 322 Corridor and within the Auburn Road area of Woolwich
Township, New Jersey. The zoning regulations and design standards
address seven development sectors within the Woolwich Regional Center
and the Auburn Road Village. Sectors have been identified and are
designed to promote stability and sustainability to the concept of
the community of the 21st Century as they are designed to accommodate
the growth of both regional and local services, some pedestrian-oriented,
some automobile-oriented, and provide employment, civic and residential
choices for communities of up to 4,246 residential units and roughly
five million to six million square feet of retail/commercial space.
A. Subsectors.
(1)
The Woolwich Regional Center:
(b)
Gateway Highway Service (RC-2).
(c)
Large Format Retail (RC-3).
(e)
Regional Office and Hotel (RC-3).
(f)
Neo-Traditional Senior Community (RC-3).
(2)
The Auburn Road Village: Mixed Use Commercial/Residential
Walkable Neighborhood Center (AR-1).
B. The regulations and standards within this Part 2 address
location, mixture and intensities of permitted uses, as well as site
planning and architectural controls designed to promote vibrant urban
form consistent with the visioning process undertaken by Woolwich
Township officials, civic leaders and citizens.
C. This is not a document about architectural style.
By style we mean such descriptive terms as "colonial," "victorian,"
"modern," "post-modern," etc. While each of us may have a collective
memory of a place or places where such styles have elicited positive
experiences of community, the history of human settlement instructs
us that basic design considerations independent of "architectural
style" are determinants of successful human scale community building.
Good design promotes healthy community of place. The tenets of good
design expressed in this document are based on seven principles:
(1)
Scale: the visual arrangement and massing of
buildings, voids and landscape elements that promote walkability and
other alternative forms of transportation, a sense of place and a
human scale rather than auto-oriented suburban sprawl.
(2)
Rhythm: a pattern of facade and streetscape
elements that discourages monotony and creates an inviting pedestrian
environment and visual compatibility with buildings and places.
(3)
Edges: physical elements that define a place
and provide transition to adjacent areas.
(4)
Colors and materials: the visible components
of buildings and streetscapes, including siding, trim, doors, windows,
gutters, downspouts, roofing and all other architectural and site
elements. They must be in context with their environment and must
be sustainable, low maintenance, durable and tactile.
(5)
Density: the proximity at which a community
lives, works and plays together.
(6)
Choice: the provision of housing, employment,
retail, recreation and other services for people of all ages and lifestyles.
(7)
Diversity: a variation of scale, rhythm, materials,
density and choice that provides an array of options for all people.
D. The local visioning process has identified a series
of goal statements, as outlined below, which are to be considered
in the review of all development applications involving lands located
within the mapped Woolwich Regional Center and the Auburn Road Village.
Requests for variances, waivers and/or deviations from the ordinance
provisions of this code shall be evaluated in the context of the impact
the same may have on the following goal statements:
(1)
Promote traditional neighborhood developments
where the physical, visual and spatial characteristics are established
and reinforced through the consistent use of compatible urban design
and architectural design elements. Such elements shall relate characteristics
of an individual structure or development to other existing or planned
structures or developments in a harmonious manner, resulting in an
overall development pattern and streetscape.
(2)
Encourage innovative mixed-use and multiple-use
plans so that the housing demand of varying age groups, families and
income levels may be met by greater variety of type, design and layout
of dwellings and by the construction and more efficient use of open
space. To that end, the goal is to create smaller lots than currently
exist in Woolwich Township to accommodate a mixture of single-family
detached units, twins, townhouses, condominium flats and apartment
flats above commercial and office uses which are to be integrated
into the plan.
(3)
Promote the creation of neighborhoods and districts
that are distinct and identifiable in landscape, architecture and
public space elements.
(4)
Encourage the development of "sustainable" community
identified by economic and fiscal balance, social integration and
maximization of water and energy conservation through the use of passive
and active technologies.
(5)
Encourage land development practices that will
promote the public health, safety, and welfare by creating neo-traditional
land use alternatives to conventional, use-segregated "suburban sprawl,"
such as larger-lot subdivisions and strip commercial developments.
(6)
Discourage uses and design patterns that tend
to contribute to traffic congestion through the dependence on private
automobiles.
(7)
Establish a comprehensive street and path network
based on the principles of the grid to accommodate an integrated multimodal
transportation system with the intent of providing a safe pedestrian
environment and pedestrian paths.
(8)
Alleviate undue traffic congestion by reducing
excessive sprawl of development and the segregation of land uses which
result in the inefficient use of land and which necessitate the use
of private vehicles.
(9)
Encourage creative green technologies integrated
into public spaces and private development parcels to achieve flood
control, stormwater recharge and water filtration in an effort to
preserve an indispensable natural resource.