If a city increases floor-area ratio while maintaining other controls, what impact can occur on urban form?

• A. Lower density.
• B. Taller, denser buildings.
• C. Only affects highway design.
• D. No change in urban form.

Answer: (B)

Floor-area ratio shows how much building floor area can be packed onto a given piece of land relative to the land size. If you raise this ratio while keeping all other controls the same, developers can add more floor area to the parcel. Since the footprint is fixed by the lot and other rules don’t change, the extra floor area usually comes from adding more stories, making the building taller, or otherwise increasing its vertical mass. The result is a city form that is more vertical and denser on the same footprint, rather than spreading out horizontally. It’s not about highway design, and it certainly changes the urban form by concentrating more building mass upward.