Abundant commercial corridors, lined with single story retail malls (strip center, strip malls), provide opportunities for new transit, housing and economic centers.
Benefits & Problems Addressed
Underperforming economy & vacant spaces: Corridors offer concentrated, high traffic areas of high redevelopment potential.
Traffic congestion: Replacing local car trips with walk and bicycle access subtracts some traffic off of corridors
Tips & Techniques
Where to begin: Identify corridors where walkability and transit can replace auto trips. Identify intersections with a right-in/right-out turn for the afternoon/evening commute as top candidates for the first & largest investments. Plan for a series of nodes (1 per mile) to replace blocks of continuous single story buildings.
Challenges: Plan to face top challenges: (1) working across multiple jurisdictions, (2) working with a state Department of Transportation & regional transit agencies,(3) shallow lots with coveted curb cuts & drive-throughs; (4) utilities; (5) weak retail markets.
Overlay & Node planning: See if your state Department of Transportation has thoroughfare planning options for road, sidewalk, bike facilities, utility and intersection improvements.
Experimental Uses & Programming: Allow short term and civic uses in empty spaces. Improve facades with storefront improvement programs and landscaping. Experiment with kinds of signs and wayfinding. Establish a design center for the redevelopment endeavor.
Hot Buttons: (1) Reprogramming parking, already constrained and located in front of a business, will be a challenge. (2) With shallow lots, there may be little room for tapering density to neighboring residential areas. (3) Older arterials have little room to expand for sidewalks, bike lanes and on-street parking; (4) Concern that local "mom & pop" stores will be priced out with improvements.
Resources & Examples
Restructuring the Commercial Strip – A Practical Guide for Planning the Revitalization of Deteriorating Strip Corridors - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2012)
Link to Method Experts
Images: Main image - Dover Kohl & Parters; Corridor US EPA.