THE FUTURE OF COUNTRY FAIR A Report for the City of Champaign
NORA FLYNN
November 2015 Revised April 2018
Executive Summary Country Fair is an aging shopping center that has been struggling to compete economically with other commercial districts in the Champaign for several decades. In recent years, as improvement seems less and less likely and the surrounding area grows, the question of what happens next has become more important due to the development potential of its location. This report, commissioned by the City of Champaign, will consider the history of Country Fair and possible solutions, focusing on a potential redevelopment option that sticks to commercial usage but re-imagines the site as a desirable destination for nearby neighborhoods.
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Context
Built in 1959, the Country Fair sprawls across 326,000 square-feet at the intersection of Springfield and Mattis Avenues in western Champaign. The shopping center has struggled with falling property values for years as vacancies increase as businesses have moved near Marketplace Mall and North Prospect Avenue, a thriving commercial center just north of Interstate-74. Smaller and older shopping centers are forced to compete with North Prospect’s lucrative growth for businesses and customers. However, Country Fair has the potential to become an appealing location for Champaign residents again. Country Fair is located southeast of the interchange between Interstate-57 and Interstate-74, making it accessible to those in surrounding municipalities. On the local level, Mattis and Springfield Avenues are the principal arterial cross streets. As seen in Figure 1, it is positioned further west than Marketplace Mall, Downtown Champaign, and Campustown, all of which lie east of Prospect Avenue. Champaign’s Comprehensive Plan guides development near the southern and western periphery so it is likely that Country Fair will eventually be much closer to the city’s geographic center. Country Fair also serves as the western hub for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD), with many of the regional bus lines stopping within its boundaries.
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Shown below is an aerial satellite image of Country Fair, which is bound by Round Barn Road, Springfield Avenue, University Avenue, and Mattis Avenue. The development primarily consists of large multi-tenant commercial buildings surrounded by surface parking with smaller outlots built near the arterial streets. Due to the large setbacks, wall signage for the remaining tenants is not visible to passing drivers.
Source: Google Maps
The physical attributes of Country Fair’s infrastructure are clearly those of an aging development. The pavement is cracked and uneven, with fading paint. Most of the available spaces are connected in a large strip mall with uniform facades. With so many vacancies, businesses are spread out across the strip in clusters of three and four, making it inconvenient for shoppers to visit multiple stores on the site. To potential customers, Country Fair’s landscape can come off as bare and uninviting, which in turn does little to incentivize private investment from developers and business owners.
Source: Google Maps Street View
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Existing Conditions
Current Zoning
Source: City of Champaign, Zoning Map 2014
Shown above, Country Fair is currently zoned as part of the Commercial General (CG) District. CG Districts are characterized in the Champaign Municipal Code as high-intensity commercial areas with a focus on automobile access and heavy traffic. A wide variety of building sizes, forms, and land uses are permitted. The majority of parcels to the east across Mattis Avenue are located with Single-Family (SF) and Two-Family Districts (SF2). West of Country Fair, the adjacent zoning is a Multi-Family High-Density/Limited Business (MF3) District that is currently improved with several three-story apartment buildings. Directly to the north and south of the development, the CG District continues. However, if one continues further north on Mattis Avenue, industrial and manufacturing land uses become more common while southward there are primarily of single-family neighborhoods. It is likely that Country Fair will have to undergo zoning changes in order to become an area of interest to the surrounding community. The Cities of Urbana and Champaign only have a combined population of approximately 128,000 people and the surrounding region is almost exclusively rural. With North Prospect and Marketplace Mall serving as the dominant regional commercial center, there is little room in the market for the type of development and commercial establishments that Country Fair is currently zoned for.
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Mixed-Use Development
Country Fair was designed for heavier commercial use that is no longer compatible with the surrounding residential neighborhoods. By aiming to become a mixed-use development, the Country Fair site could serve as a commercial center at a neighborhood scale. The housing element of such a development would allow a greater number of families to live near valuable community amenities as Centennial High School, public parks, and recreation centers are located only 1/4 of a mile away. It would also offer a mix of restaurants and shops similar to those in Downtown Champaign within walking distance of the city’s less centrally located neighborhoods.
Source: Champaign Public Library
Community-Centered
Although commercial and residential uses are compatible with the surrounding development, the land also has the potential to serve a hub of public facilities. In 2014, the Unit 4 School District was considering Country Fair as a potential site for the development of a new high school campus but was ultimately eliminated due to not having enough space to accommodate the number of students the school would need to hold. However, it is still an optimal location to host community-based services such as an early childhood center, a library branch, social services offices, or additional parks and sports fields. Although the facilities would be most beneficial to residents in close proximity, the number of transit connections to the site would keep services accessible to the entire CU community.
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Future Options
A Vision for Country Fair
Based on elements of Champaign’s Comprehensive Plan, the city should aim to revitalize Country Fair with the following goals in mind:
Guiding Principles Building a Cohesive Community
Country Fair is seen as an extension of nearby neighborhoods and uses rather than a separate entity.
Accessibility for All
Access is safe and available to all potential visitors--bikers, drivers, walkers, and public transit users alike.
Appealing Urban Design
Building show visual variety, interest, and attention to architectural detail while open space includes landscaping and areas for passive recreation.
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This report will now explore a potential option: keeping Country Fair commercially-focused but with a smaller, neighborhood scale, redesign, and incorporation of public space to be open to all.
Zoning Changes
In this proposal, Country Fair would be re-zoned as a Commercial Neighborhood (CN) District. The CN District is meant to be a low-intensity shopping district that prioritizes serving surrounding residential neighborhoods and stresses pedestrian and bicycle friendly designs. Establishments are also limited in size and scope, allowing the development to retain its small, human-optimized scale. The CN and CG districts currently have considerable overlap in their listed permitted uses as both allow restaurants, retail food and rug, as well as personal and commercial services, and primarily differ in the restrictivity of their development standards. Two current parcels east of Country Fair Drive would be re-zoned as a Multifamily High Density/Limited Business, to act as an extension of the MF3 zone across the street. Ideal usage would include a public park to serve as an entryway to the development for the apartments across the street but could also includes mixed use buildings or additional multifamily housing.
Proposed Zoning Map
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Proposed Zoning Map
Snapshot of a Potential Future Proposal
Pedestrian Space
The reallocation of existing surface parking lots and vacant space towards a pedestrian plaza that surrounds is a key aspect of this proposal. Facing the storefronts into the plaza in a series of smaller buildings creates a more walkable and centralized space within the project. A plaza also allows greater accessibility as pedestrians can visit businesses without worrying about automobile traffic and tenant entrances are located closer together. Incorporating walkways into the plaza between buildings from the street ensures that people are able to quickly access the center regardless of the direction they are coming from and the additional space can accommodate large crowds during the warmer months. On the western side of the site, pedestrian space is still present between the parking lots and Mattis Avenue. Placing surface lots allows commercial tenants to have frontage along Mattis Avenue, lending to greater visibility to passing drivers.
Transportation Options
Automobile parking is still available, but scaled down for lower density shopping and the expectation that a larger proportion of visitors will arrive by alternative means. The separation between parking and storefronts allow Country Fair to be an enjoyable space but also takes into consideration the fact that many people will still choose to drive. Bike specific parking is provided in on two sides of the lot and design should consider infrastructure improvements which make cycling a safer and more convenient option. CUMTD buses will continue to run through the center with a total of five stops serving the various lines that run throughout the day. This proposal will also improve accessibility to the site by improving and adding sidewalks around the perimeter in addition to repaving and repainting parking lots and crosswalks.
Conceptual Small Area Plan
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Conclusions
The Country Fair Shopping Center could potentially shut down completely if it continues to decrease in market value and lose business to newer and more desirable commercial districts. As Champaign-Urbana continues to change and expand, growing westward, Country Fair should be expected to grow in its potential value due to its increasingly centralized location. North Prospect and Marketplace Mall have the absolute advantage in the number of larger retail and dining options that Country Fair was originally designed to hold. Perhaps the future of Country Fair is not to be a bustling hub of commercial enterprise but a smaller center catering to local residents but available and accessible to all in the larger region. No matter the form or direction that Country Fair will ultimately take in the future, it will be important to consider how the site is integrated with nearby neighborhoods and land uses, the accessibility and walkability needs of a changing population, and the impact that careful and quality design can have on the vitality of a place. Country Fair is far from hopeless, but will require immense dedication and reshaping if it is to flourish in the years to come.
References: Champaign, IL Code of Ordinances. (2015, May 19). Retrieved October 1, 2015, from https://www.municode.com/library/il/champaign/codes/code_of_ordinances Pressey, D. (2015, August 30). Country Fair: No concrete plans. The News Gazette. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
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