Ben Noble’s Form-Based Code presentation is great.

For anyone who wants to understand more about what a Form-Based Code is and how it would work in Arcata, I strongly recommend reading the transcription on this website, link here.  This presentation really MUST be read by everyone who is involved in the Gateway plan process.

The presentation had its problems, however.  In the recording on Arcata’s Youtube channel, the audio of Ben speaking is muffled and bad. I enhanced the audio track for clarity as best as possible. And it’s a lot of information for a video.  That’s why I took the time and trouble to transcribe the presentation and create a webpage with all the original PowerPoint slides. I gain more from reading than through a video — you too, perhaps.

What other Form-Based Codes has Ben Noble written?

In the process of writing this article, I contacted Ben, in order to get more background into what he is doing.  I had what I regard as a pretty simple request:  What other Form-Based Codes has he written for other cities?

Isn’t this something that we’d ask of any contractor?  Anyone who we’d want to hire to do a job.  Can we see some examples of your work?

First I wrote to Ben.  He told me that he’d need authorization from the City.  Okay, I can understand that.  Then I wrote to David Loya.  He wrote back that he couldn’t supply the requested items.  Well, I had not requested any items of him — as David Loya so often does, both at the Planning Commission level and with individual persons, he makes up what he would like the other party to have said, so he can respond to a question that the other person hadn’t asked.

He wrote:

​>>Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to provide you with the requested items. These are not records we hold.

I wrote back to David the following:

“I wasn’t asking you for any requested items, or any records. I understand if you aren’t aware of examples of work Ben Noble has done — but certainly Ben is.

“I asked Ben:

On your website, with the list of Development Codes — which of them should I look at that might be representative of a form-based code you’ve been involved in?

Just give me an idea of where I can look, to see something you’ve done that would be a great example for us to look at.

“David: Will you authorize Ben Noble to respond to me about this?”

“On his CV are ~29 Development Codes that he lists. I can perhaps assume that there are some Form-Based Codes among them.

“Ben will know this: Which would be good examples that we can look at?
For Ben to reply, he wants your authorization.”

And I didn’t hear back from David after that.

Our City Manager, Karen Diemer, then wrote to me:

“I see from some of the correspondence with David and that he forwarded you the CV from the proposal.  Attached is also Ben’s resume that has several codes listed that he has worked on. Thanks,  Karen”

I wrote back:

“What I’m looking for are some representative examples of Form-Based Code that he has done for other cities and any other information he might add about himself and the Codes.  . . . I assume there must be some good Form-Based Codes that he has done that he can direct me to.”

And I didn’t hear from Karen after that.

Karen and David:  Do you think I can’t use the Internet?

I already had Ben’s Curriculum Vitae and the list of projects he’s worked on.  That’s on his website, at http://bnplanning.com/   His  scant-5-page websites lists 41 instances of general plans and area plans and development codes and housing elements that he has worked on.  But at the bottom of that page he wrote:

Note: Majority of projects completed as employee of PlaceWorks, formerly Design, Community & Environment.

So, Ben:  If the majority of these projects were completed when you were an employee, which ones did you do as BN Consulting?

So what has Ben Noble actually done?

The answer is:  We don’t know.

At the end of the June 29th presentation, David Loya fielded questions that had been sent in by the public and also questions from the live Zoom audience. I wrote in:

“What are the names of two cities that you, as Ben Noble Consulting, have done Form-Based Codes for?”

Ben Noble responded:

“So I did a Form-Based Code for the City of Merced, city-wide with hybrid code, with code based on traditional code components. More recently I completed a Form-Based Code for a new mixed-use district within a specific geographic area in the city of Benecia called the Eastern Gateway study. I’m very happy with how that turned out. All of that can be available online. For the city of Capitola, a lot of recent work on objective standards for residential and multi-family development. I wrote the Zoning Code for Capitola, and standards for the mixed-use districts and Village District, based on Form-Based principles. So I think those are those are some that I would suggest.”

Okay, here’s the deal.  

• The City of Merced zoning upgrades were done in 2012, when Ben Noble was the Associate Planner with The Planning Center, which became Placeworks. So that does not qualify to answer the question. As Ben said, it’s a hybrid – based on traditional code. So that doesn’t qualify there on that too.
• Benecia’s Eastern Gateway is only 13.5 acres (4 or 5 city blocks — Benecia has long blocks). The Zoning Amendments is a 36-page document — hardly a good thorough example of an extensive Form-Based Code.  So that wouldn’t apply so well either, it would seem.
• The City of Capitola Zoning Code came out in January 2017. The document says:
  “Prepared by: Ben Noble, Urban and Regional Planning / PlaceWorks”
  So it looks like it was done when Ben Noble was associated with PlaceWorks, and not as an independent consultant — so it is also not relevant to the question. It is a good-looking 384-page document, and covers lots and lots of topics. It shows that Ben Noble is skilled at what he does. But is it Form-Based Code? I’m not the expert, not one little bit — but it sure doesn’t look like a Form-Based Code the way it’s described in Ben’s presentation.
• I looked at the codes for Capitola.  The Zoning Code itself doesn’t look like it’s Form-Based Code — it looks like run-of-the-mill ordinary code. The Village Mixed-Use district is about 8 square blocks, and the Neighborhood Mixed Use zone is along ~8 lineal blocks on the main streets.  A very small area, relative to the Arcata Gateway area.
  The Zoning Code consists of 13 pages (Pages 7-19 in the 31-page document) and includes 10 illustrative diagrams.  The Neighborhood Mixed Use zone is a mostly built up commercial strip in one sections and a mixed commercial/residential strip in the other section, apparently all 1-story and 2-story buildings.
  Seen on Google Earth view here and here

  Similarly the Village District is all built out with a commercial area of 1-story and 2-story buildings.  See street view here.   None of the Capitola area has any resemblance to anything we have in Arcata and particularly nothing like the Gateway area.

  Parts of this may be, as Ben says, “based on Form-Based principles” but it’s not the kind of thing that I see as being representative of what a consultant would want to show as their best work.

Again:  What has Ben Noble actually done?

His work seems thorough and competent, but what has ha actually done?  It’s one thing for the City Manager and the Community Development director to block me from even asking a simple question:  “What are some representative examples of Form-Based Code that he [Ben] has done for other cities  . . . I assume there must be some good Form-Based Codes that he has done that he can direct me to.”

Why is the public being stonewalled? 

 

Is there something to hide?

But when asked in a scheduled public presentation for the people of Arcata the very straight-forward question:

“What are the names of two cities that you, as Ben Noble Consulting, have done Form-Based Codes for?”

And he he gives us these measly examples — What are we supposed to think?  That these are the best samples of his work? 

Why is the public being stonewalled?  Is there something to hide?

Ben, help us out here!  What have you done, as BN Consulting, that you can point us to?

Is the Form-Based Code where we’ll see affordable-housing requirements, and energy-efficiency minimums, and provisions for parks and places for people to meet and maybe even garden spaces and all that good stuff? 

Can we expect something like a 36-page document, or more like a 380-page document, or bigger? Will there be Form-Based Code specifically for small areas, even block-long segments, to ensure new construction fits in with existing structures?  Is the Form-Based Code where we’ll see affordable-housing requirements, and energy-efficiency minimums, and provisions for parks and places for people to meet and maybe even garden spaces and all that good stuff? 

We don’t know because the examples you provided don’t give us a clue.

Help us out, Ben Noble.  We’ve been waiting eight months and we have no idea what we’re going to see.  I have faith that you can do good work — but I’d like to see it firsthand.

Can’t you at least show us a sample? A chapter? A few pages? Please?

Help us out, Ben !