Prototypes: Commercial Strip Development
8.3 COMMERCIAL STRIP DEVELOPMENT
Commercial strips are places along major roadways,
often state highways, where retail development is
planned primarily for automobile access. Stores are
typically set back from the street behind large
parking lots, and few pedestrian facilities are
provided. Sidewalks along the roadway may be
discontinuous and are often not connected to store
entrances.
Commercial strips provide a mix of retail services
and eating establishments in many towns. Often,
they are activity centers that generate many trips.
Areas of commercial strip development generate
large volumes of traffic, partly as a result of people
driving from one store to another, and many left
turns make congestion worse.
In many cases zoning and disconnected roadway
networks have separated these uses from nearby
residential neighborhoods without provisions for
walking short distances between home and places
of shopping or employment. The development of
these commercial districts reflects national trends in
life style and consumer preference as well as larger
scale retailing strategies over the past four decades.
With greater attention to pedestrian needs both in
new development and as properties redevelop, these
important commercial areas provide opportunities
to improve conditions for walking.
Walking along a commercial strip.
Massachusetts Pedestrian Transportation Plan
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Prototypes: Commercial Strip Development
Planning Issues
Connections to surrounding land uses need
improvement along many commercial strips. Low
density single use sites limit opportunities for
accomplishing many tasks in one trip, so more
concentrated placement of stores and offices will
stimulate more walking between them. In some
places the balance between accommodating traffic
and providing walking environments could be
accomplished through development of boulevardstyle roadways with traffic lanes in the center and
service roads with parking and sidewalks serving
stores. Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton is an
example.
In many places the roadway portion of the
commercial strip is controlled by the state while land
use and development along the road is governed by
the city or town zoning; these multiple jurisdictions
require cooperative planning. It should be
recognized that encouraging pedestrian trips to
multiple stores from a single parking place will
improve traffic flow by reducing short in-and-out
automobile movements and left turns. If stores are
located behind parking, additional sidewalks should
be provided connecting groups of store fronts to each
other and to the street.
Site Plan: Typical Commercial Strip Development
b
stores set
behind large
parking lots
a
stores and
restaurants
widely
separated
Land Uses Surrounding Commercial Strip
pond
school
residential
residential
c
residential
office
retail
industrial
site
plan
sidewalks are
distant from
stores
retail
retail
residential
residential
traffic and turning
movements affect
pedestrian crossing
residential
20 minute walk distance
site plan area
Commercial strips exist along the highway with
residential or office land uses often located adjacent,
behind the commercial zone.
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opportunities to
provide greater
linkage
2 minute walking distance
0
100
300 feet
0
30
90 meters
Massachusetts Pedestrian Transportation Plan
a
Prototypes: Commercial Strip Development
Site Planning and Design Issues
Commercial strips can benefit from retrofit
improvements to both the public and private
network of streets, sidewalks, and parking lot
circulation. In most cases each commercial site has
its own driveway connecting to the roadway, its own
parking lot, and walkways that do not connect to
adjacent sites. Circulation between stores on the same
street by automobiles or by foot is more difficult than
it needs to be. Local site plan review can encourage
or require site circulation that allows shared
driveways and off-street walking and driving
connections between properties.
0
50ft
0
15m
a -- Shopping plazas can be retrofitted to
provide increased density and opportunities
to park once and walk between stores.
Redevelopment should occur at the sidewalk
edge with parking in the rear. Shared parking
lots should be encouraged.
a
Pedestrian crossings of roadways need special
attention because of multiple turning lanes and fast
moving traffic. Uncontrolled curb-cuts, multiple lane
cross-sections, parallel turning lanes, shared left turn
lanes, fenced medians, and other factors make
crossing difficult. Well-marked and lighted crossings
need to be frequent enough to encourage pedestrians
to use them. In heavy traffic situations only
signalized crossings will be safe; they should be
designed to minimize conflicts with turning traffic.
In others situations, a curbed median or refuge island
will allow pedestrians to use gaps in traffic to cross
the main roadway one half at a time.
b -- Defined pathways through parking lots,
from sidewalks to store fronts, serve the
walking public.
A walkway connects the sidewalk to the front door of a
supermarket on Harvard Street in Brookline.
Massachusetts Pedestrian Transportation Plan
0
50ft
0
15m
c -- Crossings of wide streets need refuge islands for pedestrians. As stores redevelop at the street edge
walking distances become shorter. Denser shopping districts can support bus service.
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Prototypes: Commercial Strip Development
Potential Improvements
❏ Redevelop commercial strips with intensified uses
as land becomes more valuable. Cities and towns
should be prepared to effectively reshape the site
to better accommodate all modes, with a
combination of public improvements and site
plan review of new development.
❏ Evaluate sidewalk networks along commercial
strips and connections to them from adjacent land
uses. Identify and correct missing and/or
incomplete links. Include walkways along store
fronts connecting to adjacent store fronts.
❏ Organize adjacent neighborhoods and business
owners and develop district plans as a vision of
what the site or district can become. Designate
key locations for new buildings and identify uses
that will diversify activity along the strip. In
general, clustering stores and shopping plazas
and removing barriers to walking between sites
will make the strip more walkable.
❏ Identify and involve the responsible agencies/
jurisdiction(s) early in plan development so that
transportation needs continue to be met.
In many commercial strip developments there is no clear
path between the sidewalk and stores.
Stores can be oriented to meet the sidewalk. Walkways
along storefronts connect to the sidewalk. (Littleton)
❏ Work actively with business owners and
developers to market the site for new
development and provide incentives to
developers willing to meet guidelines set out in
the district plan.
❏ Hold sidewalk sales or other events to raise
awareness and get people to identify with the
district.
Mashpee Commons on Cape Cod is a redeveloped
retail center. The master plan includes large and small
stores in a pedestrian-oriented atmosphere. Future
development proposals include new residential
neighborhoods within walking distance of stores.
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Massachusetts Pedestrian Transportation Plan