Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-family Housing

The purpose of the draft ordinance was to define new guidelines which would permit high intensity development to continue in a way which is in keeping with Pasadena's heritage. Respect for the existing physical qualities of the old Pasadena residential areas, which are deeply appreciated by its residents, was the basis. The design ordinance identifies the courtyards and gardens as the most important element of traditional high density housing in Pasadena and seeks to give them greater status than building volume and parking layout. Thus, it sets standards for the size, configuration and public visibility of gardens, the location and design of parking and drive-ways and the organization of apartment building as low compact volumes around the gardens and courtyards. The proposal eliminates the party wall townhouses turned perpendicular to the street, maintains existing density and parking ratios, but trades some setbacks and the direct proximity of car to buildings for courtyrads and gardens. C.E.S. proposed a simple generative sequence for apartment buildings of this type, which allows the designer to produce a design for a particular site by an unfolding process that met the necessary conditions for a good apartment building. To get the sequence, a pattern language was first constructed for these multi-family apartment buildings, and then re-formulated as a generative sequence. The draft ordinance was accepted by the task force that commissioned it and had been forwarded to the Planning Commission for adoption into law.