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Downtown Master Plan and Form-Based Code - Winner of the 2008 Driehaus Form-Based Code Award
Benicia, California

Project: Urban design, planning, and Form-Based Code for an 88-acre historic downtown located along the Carquinez Strait in Benicia, California.

Program: Opticos Design led a multi-disciplinary team through a 6-month public process to produce a Master Plan and Form-Based Code for a historically contentious planning area. The process began with a 2-day community visioning workshop designed to gather stakeholder input and identify the most important planning issues. This was followed by an intense, week-long community design charrette that produced vision plans for the downtown area.

The Master Plan provides a set of design recommendations that seek to revitalize problematic areas and maintain the centrality of the First Street mixed-use district and link it physically and programmatically to the nearby artist community in the Arsenal that has a national draw. The Form-Based Code amends existing zoning and provides regulatory tools that aim to preserve the City’s remaining historic building fabric and ensure that new construction is compatible in scale and form.

The Plan was formally adopted in September of 2007.

Client: The City of Benicia, California

Download Form-Based Code

For more information on the Driehaus Form-Based Code Award:
formbasedcodes.org/
awards_2008.html

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