Council Makes Room for Businesses in Mixed-use Projects Downtown

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

May 11 -- As new housing continues to rise Downtown, the City Council Tuesday night tweaked development standards to make more room for businesses in the mixed-use projects.

By unanimous vote, the council approved an ordinance that sets minimum requirements for ground-floor commercial space in buildings on 6th and 7th streets, where most of the construction is going on.

The code revision came out of a joint effort between City planners and members of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) who went to work after the council asked for recommendations last fall.

Speaking to the council Tuesday, ARB Chair Joan Charles said the idea is to make the emerging neighborhood a vibrant and pedestrian-friendly place with small businesses that cater to the residents.

"I've seen first hand the explosion of mixed-use buildings in recent years, many with small, barely usable retail spaces," Charles said.

"In order for this area to function as a true neighborhood, with shops, cafes, dry cleaners and other resident-serving businesses, we must create adequate, inviting spaces to house those businesses."

Under the new rules, 2,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space would be required for every 50 feet of frontage in most new buildings on 6th Street.

New buildings on 7th Street will have to set aside half that much -- 1,250 square feet per 50 feet of frontage.

In addition -- to stop developers from sinking their ground floors two or three feet down to squeeze out a little extra buildable space-- new buildings will only be able to go six inches below grade or twelve inches above grade.

The ordinance also requires ground-floor ceilings to rise to a height of at least 15 feet.

The idea is to make the ground floors attractive to shoppers and keep the dead space between the first and second floor out of the pedestrian's line of sight.

The new ordinance also makes some tweaks to landscaping and off-street parking requirements and the standards for construction next to buildings on the historic registry.

Michael Folonis, an ARB member and local architect, said the new rules make good planning sense, adding that he doesn't think developers will put up a fuss.

"We've seen developers come in and try to meet these standards even before they came to you, " Folonis told the council.

The ARB has looked at projects for 7th Street at almost every meeting in the past year, Folonis said. Many of the plans included only 600 square feet of commercial space, he added.

With no problem reaching 100 percent occupancy, Folonis thinks those projects would better serve the area if they included more room for neighborhood businesses.

Each block of 7th Street has the potential for ten mixed-use developments, each of which could have 50 two-bedroom units, Folonis told the council. Putting 250,000 square feet of commercial space in those ten potential buildings would not be too much, he said.

"If you have 1,000 people on the block they will support those businesses," Folinis said.

Before passing the ordinance Tuesday, the council members added a few final tweaks of their own.

At the suggestion of Council member Richard Bloom, stronger language was added to require that new commercial space on corner lots be "pedestrian oriented,” in effect reserving the coveted locations for the kinds of businesses that get the most foot traffic.

Also -- noting that the original recommendations might have made it difficult if not impossible to build on a sloping lot -- Council member Herb Katz, who is an architect, persuaded the council to let builders go up an additional six inches to one foot above grade.

Parking, always an issue Downtown, was also discussed.

After Council member Kevin McKeown pointed out that much of privately-developed public parking has ended up behind locked gates, the council directed staff to look at ways to make sure that the required parking is more accessible in future developments.

The new ordinance will take effect June 26 and will only affect projects that have not already submitted completed plans to the City.