Burlington Neighborhood Code

2024

To increase the amount and variety of housing in Burlington, VT, Utile assisted the City’s Planning Department to reform their existing residential zoning code from a more restrictive, density-based system to a more flexible, form-based one, unlocking the potential for significantly more infill, new, and context-sensitive housing development across the city. In early 2024, the City Council unanimously approved the Code.

The Neighborhood Code updates the existing district boundaries (so that zoning reflects existing neighborhood patterns) and creates a simplified framework based on a few easy-to-understand parameters: building massing, roof form, setbacks, lot coverage, and units per building. Each of these parameters are calibrated to Burlington’s neighborhoods to reflect their existing scale.

To achieve greater flexibility, the Code also allows for small lot divisions, flag lot divisions, townhomes, special cottage court configurations, and no minimum parking requirements. Altogether, the Code promotes greater housing supply, homeownership opportunities, and more housing typologies and choices for Burlington, VT.

typology axons
The proposed form-based code is flexible enough to allow for a range of design solutions, such as this sample of potential development outcomes.
01_District Standards_RL
Proposed Residential Low Density (RL) District standards showing footprint, height, setback, and building separation rules, including how new development (in green) relates to existing residential buildings (in white).
02_District Standards_RM
RM District standards showing height, setbacks, and relationship to existing buildings
Cottage Courts - no labels
Cottage court standards showing scale and relationship to central open space.
Screen Shot 2024-07-22 at 3.27.04 PM
Proposed zoning map showing updated district boundaries and a new mixed-use corridor
RL
The proposed form-based code is customized to ensure that design standards for each zoning district reflect that district’s context and scale. These aerial diagrams illustrate this sensitivity through hypothetical infill and new development scenarios for the RL and RM districts (left and right respectively).
RMRL