22 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Local Types, Future Forms: Implementing Zone Allentown “The starting point was the building type study. From there, those were plotted on the map on a parcel-by-parcel basis,” says Trevor Tormann, Senior Planner. “Immediately, there were patterns and rings moving out from the center. But there was the mosaic.” Allentown, Pennsylvania, is a small city of 125,000 people and the largest in the Lehigh Valley, located on the eastern edge of the state. By the time the city adopted its first zoning ordinance in the 1940s, the population had already reached 100,000, with a dense urban core where residential neighborhoods surrounded industrial sites and smallscale commercial uses. People lived close to where they worked, and new neighborhoods extended steadily from the center. Nearly a century later, the city sought to rewrite its early zoning code through FEATURE To understand the process of designing Zone Allentown – the City of Allentown’s new form-based zoning code – the Small Cities Lab team spoke with Director of Planning and Zoning, Jennifer Gomez, Chief Planner Trevor Tormann, and Senior Planner Melissa Velez. They discuss how Allentown’s zoning approach evolved and continues to adapt to better reflect the city where they live and work.
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