There has been a lot of talk on both sides of the Ordinance 033 debate regarding the diversity of Old Town. It's one of the aspects that's universally loved by people throughout Fort Collins. But in listening to people wax eloquent about how they love Old Town's diversity, it soon becomes evident that one person's idea of "diversity" can be quite different than another's.
Diversity means "the condition of having or being composed of differing elements" according to Mirriam-Webster. You could say that a group of people of varying ages and nationalities is diverse.
But you could also say that a group of animals of varying species and even different classes (mammal, reptile, bird, fish, etc.) is diverse. The same word aptly describes variation within a species, a genus or a phylum.
So for our discussion of houses within a neighborhood, there needs to be some sort of qualifier upon the word "diversity" in order to understand exactly what it is that's diverse. If you were to look at the range of human dwellings, then the areas under discussion here in Fort Collins are far from diverse. Multi-family units (beyond the occasional duplex) are incredibly rare within these zones. Most of the eastside and westside neighborhoods consist primarily of single family houses, which is only one small subset of housing. In that sense, it's not a very diverse part of town at all. (Note that the large condominiums in the downtown area aren't located in the two zones that are covered in this ordinance. Nor are the new multi-unit dwellings that are slated to go in along Mason and Howes in the near future.) So our first qualifier upon the use of the word diverse must be that we're only looking at single-family, and some two-family, homes. This is a qualifier that we all agree on.
But there is an additional qualifier that those in favor of the Good Neighbor Ordinance would point to and that is compatibility. There are times when you don't want to be so diverse that you've stepped out of the zone of compatibility Take marriage, for example. When looking for a spouse, you might be willing to consider a diverse set of humans to choose from. But it's not likely that you're going to push for a sense of diversity that surpasses that to include pandas, pigs and pteranodons. There's quite simply a lack of compatibility in that case. So we might say that we're OK with diversity, but it's assumed that diversity in marriage partners extends only to those within the human species. Likewise, for those in favor of compatible growth in Old Town, it's assumed that the term "diversity" refers only to variation within a set of architectural styles and sizes that match the housing stock that has been here for 50 years or more.
Atlantic City put out guidelines for maintaining traditional character in older neighborhoods that speaks well to this issue. They say, "Diversity in architectural design is a part of the heritage of the established neighborhoods in Atlantic Beach. It is important to note that the majority of buildings, although diverse in design, are compatible with their neighbors. They share fundamental relationships of building mass and scale, orientation and setback." Very similar considerations were put into developing the policy that is now called Ordinance 033. New additions and buildings are allowed under both the old and new zoning rules. However, the new ordinance, through design guidelines and a slightly reduced floor area ratio, attempts to keep new building within a range that will enable the new building to still be compatible with our historic Old Town structures.
