A Master Plan for Courthouse Village - College of Humanities and ...

DESIGN GUIDELINES
The following Design guidelines pertain to elements of the built environment,
including buildings and supporting features, such as sidewalks and roads. These
guidelines are intended to direct the manner in which these elements are built
and placed in relation to each other in order to result in the creation of a place
that is coherent, distinct and pleasant. “Through the consistent use of materials,
colors, style, building massing, and other features and site elements, a visual
connection may be established between building forms” (Shelton, 2003: 66).
These principles should be taken into account with any development within the
Village, but are especially important within the Village core.
Elements
Building Heights and Setbacks
The height of buildings dictates, to a large degree, the scale of an environment.
Buildings built too high may act to intimidate or overwhelm and may not be
conducive to a village setting. Building heights do not necessarily need to be
completely uniform, but should be between two and three stories high in the
Village center. This is necessary to satisfy the land use and housing goals of
encouraging the development of a mixed-use center comprised of second-story
residences existing above street-level retail.
Figure 17: Small variations in building heights maintain overall uniformity
Setback requirements can be used to create a uniform, defined and visible
boundary between street and building. Minimum setback requirements should be
in effect for all buildings occurring in the Village center in order to allow for
adequate pedestrian access via sidewalks. However, large setback
requirements, as are typical in conventional suburban-type developments, place
buildings far from the street and do not contribute to a sense of enclosure.
Therefore, minimum set-backs for buildings fronting Route 522/6 should range
between fifteen to thirty-five feet.
A Master Plan for Courthouse Village Page 58 of 96
Spring, 2006
Goochland County