Reinventing Suburban Business Districts

[Pages:10]Ten Principles for

Reinventing America's

Suburban Business Districts

$

Urban Land Institute

Ten Principles for

Reinventing America's

Suburban Business Districts

Geoffrey Booth Bruce Leonard Michael Pawlukiewicz

The Urban Land Institute gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Bank of America in underwriting this project.

About ULI?the Urban Land Institute

ULI--the Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute that is supported by its members. Its mission is to provide responsible leadership in the use of land in order to enhance the total environment.

ULI sponsors education programs and forums to encourage an open international exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences; initiates research that anticipates emerging land use trends and issues and proposes creative solutions based on that research; provides advisory services; and publishes a wide variety of materials to disseminate information on land use and development. Established in 1936, the Institute today has more than 16,000 members and associates from some 60 countries representing the entire spectrum of the land use and development disciplines.

Richard M. Rosan President

ULI Project Staff

Rachelle L. Levitt Senior Vice President, Policy and Practice Publisher

Dean Schwanke Vice President, Development Trends and Analysis

Marta Goldsmith Vice President, Land Use Policy

Geoffrey Booth Director, Retail Development Project Director

Michael Pawlukiewicz Director, Environment and Policy Education

Victoria Wilbur Senior Associate, Community Outreach

Nancy H. Stewart Director, Book Program Editor

Betsy VanBuskirk Art Director Book/Cover Design, Layout

Diann Stanley-Austin Director, Publishing Operations

Recommended bibliographic listing:

Booth, Geoffrey, et al. Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Business Districts. Washington, D.C.: ULI?the Urban Land Institute, 2002.

ULI Catalog Number: R37 International Standard Book Number: 0-87420-889-0

Copyright 2002 by ULI?the Urban Land Institute 1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W. Suite 500 West Washington, D.C. 20007-5201

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Cover photograph: Elkus/Manfredi, Esto Photographics, Inc.

ii

Participants

Chair

A. Eugene Kohn President Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates New York, New York

Forum Director

Michael Pawlukiewicz Director, Environment and Policy Education ULI?the Urban Land Institute Washington, D.C.

Developers

Geoffrey Booth Director, Retail Development ULI?the Urban Land Institute Washington, D.C.

Nicholas Javaras Director, Strategic Planning Shelter Bay Retail Group Mill Valley, California

Maureen McAvey Senior Resident Fellow ULI?the Urban Land Institute Washington, D.C.

Planners/Designers/ Architects

Gary A. Bowden Professor of Practice School of Architecture University of Maryland College Park, Maryland

Richard F. Galehouse Principal Sasaki Associates, Inc. Watertown, Massachusetts

David W. Kitchens Principal Cooper Carry Architects Alexandria, Virginia

Bruce Leonard Vice President, Design Starwood Urban Washington, D.C.

Market Analysts

Patrick Phillips President, CEO Economic Research Associates Washington, D.C.

Richard C. Ward President Development-Strategies, Inc. St. Louis, Missouri

Transportation Specialists

Robert Dunphy Senior Resident Fellow ULI?the Urban Land Institute Washington, D.C.

William Roache Senior Vice President Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. Watertown, Massachusetts

Ken Voigt Director of Traffic Engineering HNTB Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Public Sector

Laura E. Aldrete Stapleton Project Manager City and County of Denver, Mayor's Office Denver, Colorado

Terry Holzheimer Director of Business Investment Department of Economic Development Arlington County, Virginia

Michael Wanchick Assistant City Manager City of Richardson Richardson, Texas

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Preface

America's new demographic profile is generally affluent and well traveled and therefore has developed a heightened appreciation of place. Tired of traffic congestion, many of today's households are looking to trade in their suburban lifestyle for one that gives them more choices and flexibility. They are looking for integrated live-work-shop places that are exciting, aesthetically pleasing, and pedestrian-friendly, and that offer numerous transportation options.

The key to successful real estate development and community building is to understand the psyche of the American people and move deftly to satisfy changing market demands and needs in the real estate places we create. Major demographic changes in America's population are creating new but as yet unsatisfied demands and opportunities. The real estate capital markets are looking for safe havens secured by strong market demand. Traffic congestion, fiscal constraints, and political opposition to significant road expansion programs are pointing to fundamental shifts in residential, office, and retail location and commuting patterns.

Americans traveling extensively overseas and with more disposable income than previous generations are demanding far more from their living, working, and shopping environments. New approaches to governance and city planning are fostering the emergence of fresh approaches to development opportunities while at the same time residential neighborhoods are closing their hearts and minds to suburban expansion in their own backyards. There now exists a heightened desire for community interaction--people expressing the need to be with other people in places close to where they live that are inviting, engaging, and safe.

These social and market trends offer the potential to transform America's more than 200 suburban business districts into more vibrant, pedestrianfriendly live-work-shop places, making them the emerging focus of smart growth. Currently, such reinvented places are in short supply, as most suburban business districts encompass a disparate group of isolated uses with little or no integration, a transportation system that is automobile-oriented and often hostile to pedestrians, and a near total absence of civic identity.

iv

? C. J. WALKER

The transformation of suburban business districts demands a new form of community building that relies on both the vertical and horizontal integration of office, retail, residential, and community uses through the creation of places that Americans find so special and irresistible that they visit them again and again, invest in them, or choose them to reside in. These new trends can mark the turning point for smart growth in the suburbs, with the focus of the land use industry moving to the creation of pedestrian-friendly places that lift the spirit--special places that have been designed, built, and maintained to satisfy the full spectrum of human needs and aspirations, from the mundane to the inspirational.

In late June 2001, the Urban Land Institute convened a task force of 17 planning and development experts, under the chairmanship of ULI Trustee A. Eugene Kohn of Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York. Over two and one-half days, the task force was briefed on the research and analysis that were to form the basis of

Attributes of Existing Business District Types

Attributes

Central Business District

Compact Suburban Business District

Development density

High

Medium

Floor/area ratio

5.0 and above

2.5 and above

Building coverage

75 percent or more of lot area

50 percent or more of lot area

Lot area

Less than one acre

Less than one acre

Street layout

Land value

Spatial separation between buildings

Buildings dominate space?

Grid Very High Very low

Yes, buildings built to street alignment

Grid High Low

Yes, buildings built to street alignment

Parking cost Dominant parking type

Quality of transit service

Pedestrian orientation and quality of public domain

Subject to charge Garages (restricted access) Citywide, frequent

Very strong, encourages pedestrian activity

Subject to charge

Garages (restricted access)

District-centric, less frequent

Strong, encourages pedestrian activity

Dependence on cars for access

Choice in mode of transit

Examples

Low

Very good

Downtown, Washington, D.C.

Source: Geoffrey Booth, Urban Land Institute, 2001.

Moderate

Good

Rosslyn, Arlington County, Virginia

Fragmented Suburban Business District Low 0.5 to 2.5 25 to 50 percent of lot area Greater than one acre

Superblock Medium High

No, buildings set back from road and separated by surface parking lots Free Surface parking (restricted access) Local, infrequent

Weak,often no pedestrian linkages; encourages patrons to drive to adjoining developments High

Poor

Tysons Corner, Fairfax County, Virginia

Dispersed Suburban Business District Very low Up to 0.5 Up to 25 percent of lot area Generally exceeds ten acres Superblock Low Very high

No, buildings set back from road; often one to two stories in height in campus/park setting Free Surface parking (unrestricted access) Local, very infrequent

Very weak, developments far apart and not within walking distance

Very high

Very poor

College Boulevard? Overland Park, Kansas City, Kansas

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ULI's new book, Transforming Suburban Business Districts, visited suburban business districts in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, and then devised ten principles to underpin strategic planning aimed at reinventing suburban business districts.

GEOFFREY BOOTH

Compact suburban business districts typically consist of big buildings on small lots close together.

The task force found that a sense of place within business districts was determined by a range of factors including development density, spatial separation between buildings, pedestrian interconnections, street layout, and choice in mode of transit. It is these factors that have played a large part in the resurgence of central business districts in the 1990s and that will be the focus of smart growth and the reinvention of suburban business districts.

?ALEX MCCLEAN LANDSLIDES BOSTON

Fragmented suburban business districts include big buildings on large lots that separate the buildings from one another and therefore promote vehicle trips.

In reinventing suburban business districts, the task force considered it essential that its ten principles be applied during the strategic planning and development stage in order to maximize the place-making dividend-- the intrinsic value that accrues to a community when districts possess a strong sense of place that in turn results in high levels of repeat visits, increasing rents, retail sales, leasing demand, and capital value. Such a dividend occurs when individual real estate projects are so well designed and interconnected that they work as one integrated place.

DEVELOPMENT STATEGIES, INC.

Dispersed suburban business districts generally consist of low-rise buildings on spacious lots scattered over a large area.

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Ten Principles

Understand Your Position in the Market Build Community Support Develop a Vision and a Plan Stress Results over Regulation Break Up the Superblocks and Optimize Connectivity Embrace Mixed Use Honor the Human Scale by Creating a Pedestrian-Friendly Place Think Transit--Think Density Create a Public/Private Partnership Share and Manage Parking

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