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place as a result of the implementation of Euclidean zoning schemes. In the case of newer towns, those founded purely on Euclidean principles of separation of use, New Urbanists assert that the vital mix was never there in the first place and that thus such places exist as soulless shells.3 The New Urbanist remedy for this municipal malaise is to put into place the elements deemed crucial for maintaining a thriving civic life.4 One recently developed mechanism for achieving the goals of New Urbanism is form-based code.5 Form-based code, known in its various incarnations as design-based zoning, community- based urban design, context-based design, smart growth code, or communicative action-based planning,6 is a land use regulatory and planning tool which is increasingly used to achieve the goals of New Urbanism in municipalities of various types, sizes, and locales.' In turn, New Urbanism is founded on a core of Urbanism. Urbanism offered a distinct body of inechanisms for normative ordering in the civic environment which, in its earliest incarnations, was not 3 Jane Jacobs, Great American Cities 7(1961). Jacobs, in referring to attempts at urbanization, writes of the "freshly-minted decadence of the new unurban urbanization." Id. Such modern municipalities are further exemplified by monotony, sterility, and vulgarity. Id. 4 See, e.g. Patsy Healey, The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and Its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation, in Readings in Planning Theory 237 (Scott Campbell ed., 2002). 5 Id 6 Id. ' Some cities and towns that have recently adopted some aspects of form-based code as part of the zoning process include Syracuse, New York; Palo Alto, California; Arlington, Virginia; Petaluma, California; Huntersville, North Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; and Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Many more are either considering adopting form-based codes or in the process of drafting such codes. See e.g. Jason Miller, Smart Codes, Smart Places National Association of Realtors Magazine Summer 2004, Available at http://www.realtor.org/SG3.nsf/pages/summer04sm?OpenDocument. 3