[Vision2020] Breaking Big Boxes: Learning from the Horse Whisperers

[Craine Kit]

Nils,

Thanks for posing this article. It has a great deal of food for  
thought. The most interesting point, I think, is that the physical  
layout for retail space has a very short lifespan. Not to give away  
my age here, but I remember when downtowns were dying because the  
big, enclosed malls were latest, greatest place for shopping. This  
article mentions how those malls are now dying out, in favor of other  
formats--such as open air places similar to downtowns.

I think this makes it even more important that we, as a community,  
sit down together and figure out how we are going to handle the ever- 
spinning retail models without creating either sprawl or urban  
blight. Since the City is in the process of revising codes, now is  
the time to do that.

Kit Craine

On Jun 20, 2006, at 10:51 PM, Nils Peterson wrote:

> Another interesting read, unearthed by Andrew Ackerman down at the  
> City Dev
> office.
>
> There is a lot to read here, including an analysis of the  
> limitations of
> Moscow's recently adopted big box design standards.
>
>
> Vermont Journal of Environmental Law
> Volume 6 2004-2005
>
> Symposium 2005: Breaking Big Boxes: Learning from the Horse Whisperers
>
> By Dwight H. Merriam *
>
> http://www.vjel.org/articles/articles/Merriam11FIN.htm
>
> Way down the article are these quotes...
>
> "Planning and regulation are most effective, and absolutely needed,  
> where
> they address market failure. In the case of big box retail, the  
> market often
> fails in locational decisions in part because of tax structures and
> infrastructure designed to meet other needs but equally supportive  
> of this
> format. ...
>
> "To the extent that planning and regulation is more effective when  
> market
> forces are channeled rather than blocked, it may be that incentive  
> programs
> could "nudge" big box retail to better locations...
>
> "Mixed-use commercial developments with big box retail as one or  
> more of the
> anchors and a substantial residential component seems to have much  
> promise
> for reducing sprawl, while driving the economic redevelopment of  
> weakened
> and failed retail centers. There is much experimentation to be done  
> here if
> we are to understand how redevelopment can be effective without  
> compromising
> good planning and regulation."
>
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