Adopt development policies for large-format developments, zoning for auto-oriented commercial districts at the sub-urban edge and/or in tightly defined and smaller urban development corridors/nodes that have some bike/walk/transit access.
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
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Adopt zoning language that defines auto-oriented land uses and limits such a zoning district to the sub-urban edge; adopt a size cap; require decommissioning in the zoning district or with the development agreement for vacant big box developments; plan for at least 1 EV charging station. |
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Complement an auto-oriented commercial zoning district in the sub-urban zone with commercial/mixed-use zoning districts in the urban zone that can rely on bike/walk/transit access and that prohibit, or severely restrict, auto-oriented land uses; require a decommissioning bond to be posted as a condition of rezoning, subdivision, or building permit for chain-specific big-box developments. |
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Adopt an adequate public facilities ordinance that stages commercial development concurrently with infrastructure and residential or transit expansion; adopt a scorecard system for big-box approval that covers economic, environmental and social dimensions; ban big-box development. |
Resources
- See the Highway Commercial District ordinance from Minnesota's 2009 Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development.
- Model overlay ordinance from the MN Dept. of Transportation.
- See the Adequate Public Facilities ordinance, most appropriate for cities outside of or on the fringe of metropolitan areas, from Minnesota's 2009 Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development.
- While some cities nationwide have placed bans or size caps on large format retail developments, Ferndale, WA established, by ordinance, a three-pronged approach to retail development, including big-box stores, which includes a scorecard called EAGLE (Energy efficiency, Advanced technologies, Greater good, Low impact, Economic development).
- For example, the agreement between Inver Grove Heights and WalMart states that if the store closes, WalMart has three years to remarket the store or return the site to its pre-development condition.
- During 2016 the Minnesota-based organization Strong Towns crowd-sourced a database on tax productivity of big box stores and posted articles on how to rethink big box stores as, for example, points of social leverage and locations for recharging electric vehicles.
- The large size of suburban commercial developments can facilitate low-impact development, such as near-zero run-off at Argenta Hills, a 120-acre commercial and residential site in Inver Grove Heights.
Order Number
4