23 a comprehensive effort titled Zone Allentown. Zone Allentown is a formbased code. It seeks to manage growth and density by focusing on the size, shape, and placement of buildings. Adopted in October 2025, Zone Allentown marks a major shift from the city’s more traditional Euclidean zoning, which organized development primarily around land use and the relationships between uses and occupants. In practice, however, Allentown’s new code blends these approaches. It updates the city’s 1948 zoning framework by placing emphasis on building form, while still retaining select controls over the use of land and buildings. Five years before Zone Allentown took effect in January 2026, the city completed a comprehensive inventory of every building in the city, organizing the outcomes into a “building type study” Small City Housing • Feature • Zone Allentown Allentown zoning, before the new policy. After the new policy, launched in January 2026. (City of Allentown, PA)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==