EPA issues guide for revitalizing commercial strips

Encourages multimodal approach

Steve Hawley, May 20, 10.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a guide for planners seeking to redevelop deteriorating commercial strips, according to the agency’s website.

The website notes:

Commercial strip corridors are a common sight in American towns and cities, but many are experiencing disinvestment, resulting in vacant, abandoned, and underused properties such as abandoned gas stations and obsolete retail strip centers. Despite this disinvestment, these corridors remain key parts of regional transportation networks and are often well positioned for reuse and redevelopment because of the high volumes of traffic that they continue to experience.

The EPA encourages planners and developers to transform car-dependent commercial strips into multimodal community streets, as well as reducing the amount of paved surfaces and improving local water quality.

The guide includes five case studies that the EPA has been involved with: McCall, Idaho; Taos, New Mexico; College Park, Maryland; Denver, Colorado; and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

EPA guide: Restructuring the Commercial Strip (pdf, 2 mb)

(Photo credit: John Nova Lomax)