Can ground floor space in commercial and retail buildings be used for residential purposes?
For decades, according to new study published by the American Planning Association, cities and towns have restricted the use of such space primarily to stores, restaurants, bars, and salons.
But because the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic led to the closing of many retail and commercial operations, the APA study is suggesting that zoning officials across the country should re-think how ground level space is used.
“Many cities simply have too much zoning requiring ground-floor retail,” notes the study, which appears in the APA’s magazine Zoning Practice.
“These types of blanket requirements are not sustainable and lead to a high number of vacant storefronts,” the study asserts.
Reviewing more flexible ground floor rules adapted in such cities as Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Los Angeles, the study, authored by Tim Smith, an urban planning lecturer with the University of Chicago, argues that more flexible zoning can solve two problems at one time.
Zoning allowing for ground floor residential space in Grand Rapids, for example, has proved a response to both a “sharp rise in vacant storefronts and the need for added housing, especially affordable housing.”
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city’s planning commission this month approved a developer’s plan to allow for apartments on the ground floor of a project known as The George. That building was opened in 2018, but the advertised first level retail never materialized, leading to a proposal to use the empty space for something else.
In an essay published by the APA promoting Smith’s study, it is noted that long-standing zoning policy resistance to ground floor residences have primarily been centered on the argument that “residences generate very little foot traffic.”
“But,” continues the APA post, “You’d have to be living on an another planet to miss the fact that we have a major undersupply of housing in the U.S.”
“Furthermore,” adds the post, “the shortage is acute in many areas with an oversupply of storefront spaces.”
By Garry Boulard
