Edmonton (Alta.) - 1973 - Commercial strips in Edmonton_issues and opportunities

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124 STREET WHYTE AVENUE

109 STREET COMMERCIAL STRIPS IN EDMONTON

MAIL. ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES

118 AVENUE STONY PLAIN ROAD

4120.1a .E3 E373 1973

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of Edponton Planning Dec. rtment and Long Range Planning! ,Branch

D/050/4932/1973 C.2 Planning Department COMMERCIAL STRIPS IN EDMONTON-ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES DATE

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D050/4932/1973 C.2 Planning Department COMMERCIAL STRIPS IN EDMON. ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIE4

Monte and Dempisparent

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SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This report presents information concerning the nature of commercial strips in Edmonton, the current availability of space, problem's commonly found on commercial strips, and planning approaches for the future. As a result of the research and analysis, it is recommended that commercial strips be recognized as a functioning part of the commercial structure of the City, and planned for in a positive way. The results of the research, including a list of policy recommendations, are sulaimarized below.

Commercial strips have a unique function in the commercial structure of the City. They provide locations for businesses that depend upon visibility and accessibility, opportunities, for property ownership, and often low rentals. The predominant customer pattern on strips is "specialpurpose" shopping trips. There are several older strips that have retained some of their original "shopping street" orientation, although even these areas are mixed with speciality, convenience, and automobile-oriented goods and services that makes them quite unlike planned shopping centers.

The types of businesses on commercial strips are diverse, ranging from gas stations and automobile sales to appliance repair and furniture, theatres, drug stores, hobby shops, and many others. Businesses that are related to each other tend to cluster together on the strip. Often the interrelationships are complex and cannot be easily determined from a visual survey alone. Although new types of commercial developments, such as warehouse, automotive, and home improvement centres may attract some businesses presently located on strips, in the future, it is expected that a demand for strip commercial space will continue. For many strip businesses there are no viable -alternatives to commercial strip locations.

Commercial strips have a form and function that is distinct from other types of commercial areas in the City, such as regional shopping centres and the downtown. Although there are individual stores found on commercial' strips that are in competition with similar businesses in shopping centres or the downtown, as a whole, commercial strips complement other types of commercial developments. A combination of factors, including line of goods. and services, trade area, and typical.customer shopping patterns combine to . make the drug store found on a commercial strip a different sort of business from the drug store found in a regional shopping centre.

At the present time there is a shortage of lana and building space on commercial strips in Edmonton. While five to seven percent is estimated to be a healthy vacancy rate for commercial areas, many of the Edmonton commercial strips have land and building availability rates of less than five percent.

Several of the strips have availability rates lower than one percent. While it is important to .avoid overzoning of strip commercial land, it is also necessary to provide a choice of locations for businesses. It is therefore . recommended that sufficient commercial strip land be planned for in a variety of locations in the City.

Other problems found on commercial strips include parking, traffic congestion, blight, visual appearance, and conflicts with residential areas. Parking problems are the top priority problem in the opinion of the 131 businessmen interviewed. In some locations the lack of parking is a factor restricting business. Traffic congestion also appears to accompany commercial strip development, although heavy traffic and congestion are often forces encouraging commercial strip development, rather than resulting from it. Effective planning solutions to both of these problems include service roads, extra parking lanes, small amounts of parking on side-streets off the commercial strip, and highway medians. In addition, strip commercial uses that generate extensive customer demand for parking, such as restaurants and theatres, should be required to provide sufficient on-site parking when new developments are planned.

Special design reviews by the Zoning Branch for proposed new strip commercial developments are recommended as an approach to problems related to visual appearance and conflicts with residential neighbourhoods. Although this is currently done in areas zoned C-2, design standards should be applied to other zones found on commercial strips as well. Because of the complex inter-relationships between zoning and land values, a special study is recommended to examine the problem of blight. In summary, there are a variety of specific actions that the Planning Department may take to reduce problems associated with strip commercial development.

In accordance with the above, the following policy recommendations are suggested: 1. That positive planning action be taken with regard to commercial strips in Edmonton which recognizes the integral part they play in the City's commercial structure. This action is to be based on the following criteria. (a) That planning policies formulated for commerciarstrips be flexible with regard to the type of businesses permitted On strips and recognize that: *it is freedom provided in such developments which makes them attractive commercial locations; *diversity of business types is a basic characteristic of commercial strip development. (b) That planning policies for commercial strips employ a variety of criteria for evaluating locations of new strip commercial developments, all of which must be considered. These location criteria are: *new commercial strip development should not adversely affect existing development or proposed plans such as major residential development areas, rehabilitation and redevelopment schemes, roadway improvements, etc.; *when commercial strip development is in the vicinity of predominantly residential areas, a program for community involvement should form an important part of studies related

to commercial strip expansion; *commercial strip development should be considered only in locations that allow for solutions to traffic and parking problems. (c) That planning policies formulated for commercial strip development anticipate the potential occurance and reduce the impact of such problems as parking, traffic congestion, blight, visual appearance and conflicts with residential neighbouithoods.

Methods used in this regard are to include: *service roads with limited and appropriate ingress and egress points, extra parking lanes, and small amounts of angle parking on side streets; *improved parking standards for new commercial businesses, especially those that generate high demands for customer parking; * design review (including landscaping, signs, site and building design, and buffering) for proposed new strip commercial uses. (d) That a sufficient supply of space on commercial strips be planned to provide businessmen with a reasonable choice of locations.