Alabama looks at New Urbanism

New urbanism zoning revisited

From the ALABAMA PRESS-REGISTER

Friday, October 06, 2006

By JEFF AMY

Staff Reporter

The Mobile City Council is considering a new "transitional business" zoning category, about six years after rejecting a nearly identical plan.

The new classification would limit the size of store buildings, cut down on parking and push storefronts closer to streets.

"We wanted something that would provide protections for the neighborhood, as well as allow developers to still develop," City Councilwoman Gina Gregory said.

The plan is meant for dense neighborhoods, such as Spring Hill, Crichton or historic districts, to encourage walkable shopping districts and ease residents' worries about being located next to a behemoth store and a field of parking.

"It won't be a big developer that will use this. It will be a local developer who has a small site and has a particular use," city planner Frank Palumbo said. "You won't see it on Airport Boulevard."

The zoning category fits with a national trend of new urbanism, a planning and architectural trend that promotes mixing retail, residential and office uses and aims to dethrone the primacy of the car in real estate development.

"It's really not so radical," said Jon Norquist, the president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a San Francisco group that promotes the planning principles. Norquist was the mayor of Milwaukee for 15 years.

Mobile's City Council could vote on the plan as early as Tuesday. The proposal is set to be considered at 9 a.m. today at a meeting of the council's Public Services Committee.

City staffers and Councilman Clinton Johnson, chairman of the committee, said they know of no opposition to the proposal.

The last time that transitional business was proposed, it came in the middle of a years-long political war over locating a CVS pharmacy at Dauphin and Florida streets.

The council at that time said it was uninterested in limiting the size of retail buildings and instead asked city planners to come up with a zoning category that prohibited some unpopular uses. That way, residents wouldn't have to fear that a bank would go out of business and be succeeded by a liquor store on the same site.

Ultimately, the council passed a new zoning category called limited business, which cut some unpopular uses out of B-2, the zoning category for most retail businesses.

Preservationists and residents cried foul, though, when developers used limited business zoning to erect the Shoppes of Midtown, a shopping center at the corner of Catherine and Government streets.

Preservationists and residents wanted the buildings closer to Government Street, like other nearby structures, and said the shopping center was too big to fit in with houses on a neighboring street.

However, the developer said his clients demanded that all the parking be in front, and the council passed the zoning after some compromises, with some council members saying it was important to be friendly to business.

About a year ago, the leaders of the Village of Spring Hill business group approached the city, seeking new zoning that would promote development and redevelopment of commercial areas along Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue.

"There's a big trend all over the country to go back to this kind of development," said Linda St. John, president of the group. "It will put a limit on the building size, so the buildings are not out of scale with the neighborhood."

The Mobile Area Association of Realtors is also supporting the proposal, said developer Merrill Thomas, who leads the association's governmental affairs committee.

"This is a way the city administration can be pro-business and still represent the neighborhoods," Thomas said.

Under the new proposal, the maximum allowable size for a single store would be 7,500 square feet. The maximum size for a multi-store building would be 10,000 square feet.

The setback from the street would be at least 10 feet, but would have to be within 2 feet of the average setback of other buildings on a block.

Only a single row of parking spaces would be allowed in front, with the rest on the side or rear of the building. No drive-through windows would be allowed.

Overall parking would be limited to one space for every 200 square feet of building or 50 spaces for a 10,000-square-foot structure. Restaurants would be limited to one parking space for every 75 square feet of space -- for example 100 spaces for a 7,500-square-foot restaurant.

Transitional business zoning would also allow people to live above the store, which is currently only allowed downtown.

Palumbo said the district could be used for infill development in areas that are mostly developed today. He also said it would be an option for businesses currently operating with a zoning variance in residential districts.

"They're not obnoxious uses," Palumbo said of what would be allowed in the new category. "It's perfect for older sections of town."

Planners mainly cited old buildings as examples of what might fit under transitional business zoning. But there are a few examples of newer buildings that could fit under the classification too. Devereaux Bemis, the director of the Mobile Historic Development Commission, named the Gulf City Cleaners location on Dauphin Street just west of Broad.

"That's the perfect example," Bemis said.

© 2006 The Mobile Register

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