Troy’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) district is centered along the Big Beaver corridor. Design Guidelines were developed to bridge the gap between the Big Beaver Corridor Study, the City of Troy Master Plan, Troy Vision 2020, and the City of Troy Zoning Ordinance.

The guidelines detail specifically what elements are critical to the implementation of the goals and objectives laid out in each document.

The Design Guidelines first describe large scale, “big picture” elements, such as general site layout, access, and building scale. Second, they provide more prescriptive standards for site planning details, street and streetscape elements, and architectural components.

The primary goal of the project was to establish a consistent set of guidelines to provide direct, immediate guidance for developers in the City. Another goal was to provide the basis for the development of form-based code regulations for the City of Troy. The comprehensive rewrite of the City of Troy Zoning Ordinance has been conducted concurrently with the creation of the design guidelines and the guidelines have provided the detailed requirements that have been incorporated in the ordinance.