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businesses at Snelling and Larpenteur. Additional housing should be considered as an • element of any future redevelopment, to take advantage of this location at the intersection of two important transit routes. Future Directions Retaining viable businesses and maintaining commercial properties, while improving the mix of local goods and services, is a high priority for the City of Falcon Heights. Based on the lack of a vacant land resource and the adequacy of commercial services in the general market area, the City of Falcon Heights does not intend to create additional commercial areas on land that is under the City's land use controls in 2007. Instead, the City intends to encourage improvement and redevelopment of existing commercial business areas in a manner that is in keeping with competitive contemporary retail/service standards of design and quality for acommunity-oriented business district. It is also the intent of the plan to • create an attractive, easily accessible, walkable and visually secure commercial area for retail customers. • minimize adverse impacts on adjacent residential areas. • Where appropriate, consider additional housing as an element in any redevelopment of existing commercial property, in order to meet projected housing needs by 2030. • Given the limited land area for commercial use in the city, 1.8% of the total land use, it is the intent of the city to attract businesses that serve the people who live and work in Falcon Heights and nearby, rather than a broader consumer base. The broader consumer base is served by the larger, more diversified and readily accessible commercial areas in the adjacent cities of St. Paul and Roseville as well as nearby Minneapolis. The plan also intends to include only businesses that are compatible and complementary to the adjacent residential areas, and to exclude uses that are not fully compatible with adjacent residential uses or are not consistent with the community focus of the city's commercial districts. This is especially important because, given the limited land supply and corresponding limited transitional areas, all commercial structures are within 270 feet of residential structures; and many commercial buildings are within 40 to 50 feet of residential buildings and homes. An exception may include the expansion of the Snelling/Larpenteur core west of Snelling Avenue, should the University or State Fair choose to divest themselves of the agricultural and fairground lands north and south of Larpenteur, east of Fairview. It is the City's intent to guide these areas toward medium to high density residential use mixed with compatible businesses that serve the local area The City's existing Land Use Plan establishes three categories of commerciaUbusiness • use including the Snelling/Larpenteur Commercial Core, Neighborhood Convenience and Limited Business as follows: Falcon Heights Comprehensive Plan 2008 Draft -January, 2008 Part II: Land Use & Housing, Page II-32