topics-planning-topics-220

Retail

Whether it’s on how to better plan for commercial and retail development or the benefits of neighborhood establishments, you’ll find articles and postings listed below.


Bringing Commercial Uses Closer to Existing Residential Neighborhoods, Part I

Bringing Commercial Uses Closer to Existing Residential Neighborhoods, Part I

Residents in established neighborhoods will often be very concerned about zoning proposals to allow new commercial uses close to their neighborhood. The question planners and planning commissioners must be able to answer is how the creation of a commercial district near a neighborhood will be a positive change.

“It’s Like Planning in a Big Doll House”

“It’s Like Planning in a Big Doll House” Members Only Content

Bath, Maine, is just nine square miles in size, with a population a little under 9,000. But it has a thriving downtown and riverfront. A look at some of the ingredients that have made downtown Bath so strong.

What’s the Market Telling Us?

What’s the Market Telling Us? Members Only Content

Ed McMahon, the Urban Land Institute’s Senior Fellow for Sustainable Development provided a riveting talk at the Northern New England APA Conference in Brunswick, Maine. His focus: changing trends in economic development, and how they are affecting the shape of our communities.

Illustration of the future "Village Street" in Storrs Center. You can locate it on the concept plan above.

Building a New Downtown – Part II Members Only Content

In part II of this posting, we take a closer look at how the Town of Mansfield, Connecticut worked with UConn and and a private developer to move forward on its new downtown, Storrs Center. Including some tips from some of the project participants.

This long building in Blue Back Square, housing the Heritage Condominiums with retail on the ground floor, had its' facade broken into section to reduce its apparent mass and make it more compatible with the pedestrian-oriented scale of the overall development.

We Don’t Let Planning Get in the Way: Pt. II Members Only Content

How did Blue Back Square get developed? West Hartford Community Services Director Rob Rowlson takes us on a tour of the development, and explains why the Town’s developer-friendly approach led to positive results.

Attractive brick paving blocks line all the sidewalks in West Hartford Center, helping create a more visually attractive setting.

We Don’t Let Planning Get in the Way: Pt. I Members Only Content

Rob Rowlson, the Town of West Hartford’s Director of Community Services, makes no bones about it: too often planning can be an obstacle to private investment and development. In Part I of this post, Rowlson talks about efforts to strengthen the core of the town’s downtown: West Hartford Center.

The End of the Strip?

The End of the Strip? Members Only Content

Long-time Planning Commissioners Journal columnist Ed McMahon on why the era of strip commercial development may be nearing an end.