The Towns, Villages, and Countryside (TVC) Land Development Regulations have been adopted for a 28-square-mile area beyond the urban fringe of the City of Fort Pierce in northern St. Lucie County, Florida. This form-based code, prepared by Dover, Kohl & Partners and Spikowski Planning Associates, is the result of a master plan prepared for St. Lucie County by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council in 2004. As the local Indian River grapefruit crop has recently suffered devastating losses from citrus canker and foreign competition, the master plan seeks to combine agricultural preservation with limited development. The TVC regulations were created specifically to implement this master plan. Unlike most codes, the Regulations were adopted prior to the physical design of the individual villages.
The TVC ordinance was adopted in May 2006. The Code received the annual Award of Excellence from the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association that same year, and received one of the inaugural Driehaus Form-Based Codes Awards from the Form-Based Codes Institute in 2007. Dover, Kohl & Partners created a Model Regulating Plan for a sample village in the TVC area to illustrate the appropriate use of the form-based code. The Regulating Plan identifies specific Transect Zones and assigns allowable street types and lot types in accordance with the standards in the Code. A regulating plan of this type is required for any property that is developed in the TVC area. Each regulating plan is subject to approval by the Board of County Commissioners through a PUD-like rezoning process.