CITY OF MARYLAND HEIGHTS Mixed-Use
BIG IDEA: Mixed-use is a development approach that should be given strong consideration as part of the Comprehensive Plan update, and subsequent amendments to the Zoning Code to implement that approach. KEY POINTS: Traditional zoning was devised for, and continues to propagate, the separation of uses. This development pattern results in excessive use of available land and dependence on the automobile. Mixed-use zoning creates walkability, integration, and connectivity by focusing on form and design rather than use. There are three types of mixed-use development: vertical mixed-use buildings, horizontal mixed-use blocks, and mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. QUESTIONS: Is mixed-use the preferred future land use within the Maryland Park Lake District? For infill development?
There are a number of historic precedents for regulating land use: Zoning, as we know it, was a product of the Industrial Revolution. With smokestack industries producing air pollution, overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions, and generally unhealthy environments zoning was developed as a means to isolate and segregate incompatible land uses. Throughout the 20th Century, towns and cities attempted to separate uses at an increasingly fine grain (i.e. not just residential separated from commercial and industrial, but retail from office, single-family residential from multifamily, and even large houses on large lots separated from small houses on small lots), with local zoning ordinances becoming increasingly complex by creating a hierarchy. Often these uses had only minor differences between them, but increasing separation and segregation of land uses has resulted in negative consequences, such as the overconsumption of land. While historically mixed uses meant that most cities were more walkable than they are today, that same proximity created health and safety hazards for residents. Pollution was rampant, streets were dangerous, and noisy bars and factories disturbed nearby apartment dwellers late into the night. Outside the industrial cities, new suburbs were being developed rapidly, marketing peace and quiet to attract residents to the countryside. The architects behind these new communities hoped to create neighborhoods that would stand the test of time. The tool these planners, developers, and architects ultimately embraced was a zoning code. In strictly defining what could and could not be built in different areas, and establishing unified development standards for residential, commercial, and industrial districts, zoning codes enabled these new communities to grow more harmoniously, distribute land uses across space, and confine hazardous uses to areas physically removed from residential neighborhoods. This approach of segregating land uses is commonly referred to as Euclidean zoning, named after the Village of Euclid, Ohio. It is the model that the City of Maryland Heights presently utilizes. Given the diversity of uses both residential and commercial within the City, a coding system has been developed for tracking uses, especially in the commercial and industrial areas. This use coding system is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The upside of this approach is the ability to analyze existing land uses to a high level of detail. The downside is that the level of detail can become an obstacle in the approval timeframe for commercial and industrial uses due to inconsistency with the coding system. The City Planner is currently reevaluating this approach to potentially reduce processing time for certain uses. For example, training and educational uses are conditional due to the potential parking demand. Even if these facilities meet the parking standards, the current approach requires a public hearing and review by the Planning Commission. The City Planner has developed regulatory alternatives to permit such uses when they meet the standards of the code and where they are appropriate in the context of the neighborhood. These alternatives will be brought forward for consideration this year. So What Is Mixed-Use? In the last decade, elected officials, citizen planners, and, to a limited degree, the general public across the nation have accepted that both commercial developments and residential neighborhoods need to be more walkable. The City of Maryland Heights has now embraced a policy of requiring sidewalks as part of all new - 3 -
development, and is currently retrofitting residential neighborhoods with sidewalks. Improved streets within the Westport Industrial Area, such as is Fee Fee Road, Weldon Parkway, and soon Progress Parkway now include sidewalks. The approach to creating walkability, integration, and connectivity between uses is what we now refer to as mixed-use zoning. While this modification of the classic Euclidean zoning approach is gaining acceptance, it suffers from a lack of definition and refinement. For example, mixed-use zones have usually had to declare a primary and secondary use with both use s development standards redundantly stacked together and the primary use, such as residential, controlling the building s configuration, orientation and disposition - thereby marginalizing the building s ability to effectively host other commercial or office uses. This is the approach that was used in Kirkwood, Creve Coeur, and several other projects along Manchester Road the St. Louis region. This approach to mixed-use zoning designation required that a land owner had the right to choose a specific use, such as either commercial or residential. While the zoning district had a mix of uses, the implementation was single-use. Today, the most common misunderstanding about mixed-use is that most people think it equates, on any street or in any context, to a shopfront with housing above (i.e. considered a traditional Main Street model). In a broader context, mixed-use allows for threedimensional, pedestrian-oriented places that layer compatible land uses, public amenities, and utilities together at various scales and intensities. This variety of uses allows for people to live, work, play, and/or shop in one place, which then becomes a destination for people from other neighborhoods (local examples are the Central West End, Delmar Loop, or downtown Kirkwood). As defined by The Lexicon of the New Urbanism, mixed-use is multiple functions within the same building or the same general area through superimposition or within the same area through adjacency from which many of the benefits are pedestrian activity and traffic capture. Types of Mixed-Use While mixed-use can take on many forms, it is typically categorized as vertical mixed-use buildings, horizontal mixed-use blocks, or mixeduse walkable neighborhoods: TRADITIONAL MAIN STREET VERTICAL MIXED-USE BUILDING: Combines different uses in the same building. Lower floors should have more public uses with more private uses on the upper floors. For example, the ground floor could have retail, second floor and up having professional offices, and uppermost floors being some form of residential, such as flats or a hotel. In more urban areas, an entire block or - 4 -
neighborhood may be composed of vertical mixed-use buildings. MIXED-USE WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOODS: With the infinite number of various possibilities, these places combine vertical and horizontal use mixing in an area ideally within a five to ten minute walking distance (known as a pedestrian shed) or quarter mile radius of a neighborhood center (e.g. San Diego s Uptown District is a nationally recognized mixed-use neighborhood that was awarded the American Planning Association designation: Great Neighborhood in 2007). VERTICAL MIXED-USE HORIZONTAL MIXED-USE BLOCKS: Combines singleuse buildings on distinct parcels in a range of land uses within one block. In more urban areas, this approach avoids the financing and coding complexities of vertical layered uses while achieving the goal of placemaking that is made possible by bringing together complementary uses in one place. In less urban areas, horizontal mixed-use offers the advantage of sharing utilities and amenities while using conventional construction to create a mixture of uses within walkable blocks surrounded by an integrated street system. HORIZONTAL MIXED-USE UPTOWN SAN DIEGO The reality for a Maryland Heights resident is to live in one neighborhood, drive to work, shop in another commercial neighborhood, and drive to a recreational area on the weekend. While the key components of live, work, and play exist in Maryland Heights (e.g. Westport Plaza, Dorsett Village/Square, both single-family and multifamily neighborhoods, Community Centre, and Creve Coeur Lake Park), they may be walkable internally, but the external connection relies on the automobile. - 5 -
Mixed-use is a development approach that should be given strong consideration as part of the Comprehensive Plan update, and subsequent amendments to the Zoning Code to implement that approach. Infill development can also benefit by this approach, albeit on a much smaller scale. The critical questions are: 1) Separation standards, visual, and physical buffering; 2) Determination of compatible land uses that are encouraged and benefitted by integration and walkability; 3) Adaptive reuse in existing neighborhoods or commercial areas (e.g. Dorsett Village, Westport Plaza, High Ridge Heights Redevelopment District); 4) Creation of pedestrian oriented places within new development, either residential or commercial. - 6 -