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<br />p L A N N I N G
<br />P R A
<br />legal). On the whole, says
<br />Beyard, "good developers oY
<br />all kinds are becoming much
<br />less adverse to regulation than
<br />they used to be. They know
<br />that areas that are well regu-
<br />lated tend to limit the num-
<br />bers of particular types of de-
<br />velopments, thus limiting the
<br />competition in their favor."
<br />And what should we call
<br />this animal? Both the ULI and
<br />the New York-based Interna-
<br />tional Council of Shopping Cen-
<br />ters use the term strip mall to
<br />refer to any unenclosed shop-
<br />pingcenter where retailers face
<br />a parking lot. Mini-mall, the
<br />term used in Los Angeles and
<br />some other places,•sounds too
<br />much like an enclosed mall,
<br />Beyard says. According to the
<br />1990 edition of the ULI's Dol-
<br />lars and Cents of Shopping Cen-
<br />ters, there are two types • of
<br />strip malls: neighborhood cen-
<br />ters (30,000 to 100,000 square
<br />feet) and community centers
<br />pup to 450,000 square feet).
<br />Plano's corners
<br />One of the few places with
<br />C T I
<br />specific guidelines for strip malls
<br />is Plano, Texas, near Dallas.
<br />But, according to chief plan-
<br />ner Phyllis Jarrell, AICP, al-
<br />most all of Plano's malls are
<br />corner shopping centers. Many
<br />of them are outparcels, located
<br />at the edge of the parking lots
<br />of large shopping centers, and
<br />the proliferation of pads (de-
<br />fined as buildings of less than
<br />5,000 square feet) had concerned
<br />the city council, Jarrell says.
<br />The design guidelines for re-
<br />tail corner development were
<br />prepared in 1985 with the help
<br />of consultant Johnson, John-
<br />son & Roy's Dallas office, and
<br />adopted as part of the city's
<br />comprehensive plan. "I think
<br />they've been fairly successful,"
<br />says Jarrell. "They state ex-
<br />actlywhat our expectations are."
<br />Although the guidelines are
<br />strictly advisory, they have in-
<br />fluenced appearance. Devel-
<br />opers of outparcels are now
<br />much more conscious of mak-
<br />ing them fit in with the large
<br />shopping center, she says. Simi-
<br />lar guidelines for service sta-
<br />tionswere adopted in 1988.
<br />C E
<br />The 10 guidelines cover: site
<br />appropriateness, building ar-
<br />rangement, access, circulation
<br />andparking, building elements,
<br />service facilities, utility/me-
<br />chanical equipment, outdoor
<br />storage, buffers and screens,
<br />landscape, signage, and light-
<br />ing. The document includes
<br />the recommendation that "con-
<br />tinuous linear strip centers
<br />should be discouraged because
<br />of their disruption to traffic."
<br />Bozeman's entryways
<br />"It's difficult to chunk off strip
<br />malls from general strip com-
<br />mercial,"says consultant Mark
<br />Hinshaw, AICP, of Bellevue,
<br />Washington. "They all share
<br />at least four characteristics:
<br />They're dominated by surface
<br />parking, they're unconnected
<br />to other developments, they
<br />offer few pedestrian amenities,
<br />and their architecture is ge-
<br />neric."But strip malls also have
<br />the potential to become more
<br />urbane-if they are designed
<br />differently.
<br />Hinshaw's ideas are embod-
<br />ied in a "design objectives plan"
<br />adopted in March by the city
<br />of Bozeman, Montana. The plan
<br />includes design guidelines de-
<br />veloped by Hinshaw and an-
<br />other consultant, Hough Beck
<br />& Baird of Seattle.
<br />Bozeman, Hinshaw notes,
<br />has a rather sophisticated down-
<br />town for a town of 30,000, but
<br />the routes into town area dif-
<br />ferentstory, with miles of typi-
<br />cal strip development-huge
<br />parking lots, motels, gas sta-
<br />tions, fast food restaurants of
<br />all sorts, and massive signs. In
<br />1990, a new master plan fo-
<br />cused attention on the city's
<br />seven "entryway" corridors, and
<br />a revised zoning code, adopted
<br />later the same year, included a
<br />provision allowing special over-
<br />lay districts to be established
<br />along the routes.
<br />A design advisory board re-
<br />viewsall development proposed
<br />in the entryway districts. A
<br />significant feature in Bozeman
<br />is an interlocal agreement with
<br />surrounding Gallatin County,
<br />which extends the advisory
<br />board's review authority three
<br />miles from the city limits.
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<br />Owners of this mall in Skokie, Illinois, took
<br />advantage of a 30 percent rebate to update facades
<br />and remove old signs. The village was so pleased
<br />with the results that it now offers SO percent facade
<br />rebates in the downtown.
<br />
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