Coving (urban planning)

Coving is a method of suburban planning used in subdivision and redevelopment of cities characterized by organic lot shapes and home placement along meandering setbacks.

[3] Coving was first discovered by accident when Rick Harrison was experimenting with design options on a Chicago subdivision layout in 1990.

Coving has led to many new discoveries and pioneering design methods and techniques as well as new software technologies and user interfaces.

This model was first created at the beginning of the 2008 recession and is being proposed in blighted urban spaces to bring about housing affordability and increased quality of life.

[4] Very early coved design (first generation) were somewhat experimental with potential problems: Coving has been cited as having several disadvantages: greater set-back from the street, larger lots, reduced usability for mixed application, decreased walkability, decreased street and pedestrian connectivity of a tract to its surroundings, increased suburban sprawl, leaving little or no public open space,[5] and allowing more soil runoff and less communal open space than alternate development types such as new urbanism.

Coved development is unique in all of land planning in that it actually gains efficiency by exceeding existing regulatory minimums, it is the first method of design with such a claim to boast.