April 30, 2024
In downtowns and central business districts across the country, two troubling trends are converging — too much vacant retail space and too little housing.
Downtowns are facing a combination of global forces, from online spending to hybrid work, that mean fewer dollars are circulating among local businesses. Many retailers have closed, and recent market analyses by Streetsense (my firm) find that vacancies and inactive storefronts account for 25 to 30 percent of ground-floor space, particularly in office-dominant downtown environments.
At the same time, the housing crisis continues to worsen. A 2023 Up for Growth report sponsored by the American Planning Association found that U.S. housing production is short 3.9 million new housing units. The National Low Income Housing Coalition cites a shortage of 7.3 million affordable rental homes.
There is an elegant solution: putting residences, rather than just commercial uses, in the ground-floor spaces of certain buildings. Yet many communities have zoning codes that restrict ground-floor residential uses in their downtowns, with planners and policy makers asserting that it undermines sound planning principles and diminishes pedestrian comfort.
It is time to explore adding ground-floor residential to our planning toolkit, along with safeguards to ensure high-quality, comfortable pedestrian environments.
Current retail rules are a threat to downtown recovery
The idea of converting ground-floor spaces to residential uses is a nonstarter in most planning circles. Planners cite concerns that ground-floor residential units result in unsafe or unpleasant pedestrian environments — potentially a holdover from Jane Jacobs's legacy principle of "eyes on the street" — or that residential units create gaps between retail uses that undermine the user experience.
But many ground-floor retail requirements simply do not align with market demand. That contributes to an already significant structural oversupply of retail space. The average person in the U.S. supports about 25 square feet of retail, compared to 17 square feet of retail per capita in Canada, and a just over four and a half square feet in the UK. Without changes to zoning restrictions, many downtowns could experience long-term vacancies that undermine downtown recovery and limit opportunities to create much-needed housing.
As places like San Francisco struggle to fill vacant storefronts, planners may have to broaden their view of allowable ground-floor uses. Photos by Emily Badger/The New York Times.
Promising solutions to the oversupply of retail in the U.S. include reconsidering overly broad ground-floor retail requirements and allowing residential uses in empty storefronts.
These retail requirements are widespread. In San Francisco's Union Square, "active ground floor" requirements apply to almost eight miles of street frontage, while in Norfolk, Virginia, an "active use" requirement covers nearly five miles. Both are areas that served as their region's premier shopping destination decades ago, but the market demand is no longer there.
Some planners believe that new housing units will generate sufficient spending to support the required ground-floor retail. However, most market analyses show that new residents in existing markets can only support about four to seven square feet of retail each.
Developers often resist ground-floor retail requirements if the market suggests those spaces are likely to sit vacant. They may push instead for more residential units that could produce cash flow. These discussions can end in stalemate: developers end up following the requirements rather than foregoing the project.
Finding a solution
While still uncommon, planners in places like Champaign, Illinois, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are instituting zoning reforms that stand to both increase the housing supply and right-size retail requirements.
A recent Zoning Practice article by Thomas Smith drills down into the experiences of two cities that now permit ground-floor residences by right in some areas. Champaign, Illinois, lifted zoning regulations prohibiting such housing on selected blocks and streets within its three central business districts in February 2022, in recognition that those areas didn't have the pedestrian activity to support commercial activity.
In January 2021, Grand Rapids, Michigan, amended its code to allow ground-floor residential in certain business and commercial districts "to help struggling property owners and, at the same time, increase the supply of housing," Smith writes. Grand Rapids Planning Director Kristin Turkelson estimates the change allows greater flexibility on about half of the city's 6,000 commercial- and business-zoned properties.
The at-grade entrances and high floor-to-ceiling heights typical of modern retail spaces allow flexibility in residential conversions. One option is a slightly raised entry, which prevents passersby from seeing in. Rendering by Alex Crawford, Streetsense.
Planners have a variety of tools available to them to ensure that ground floors remain occupied rather than sitting fallow.
Expand permitted by-right uses in established commercial districts. New York is advancing a comprehensive overhaul of the city's zoning code that allows a wider range of use districts, including small-scale production, and simplifies and updates use definitions. Under current zoning, for example, small bakeries cannot grow beyond 750 square feet and small bike shops can sell but not repair bikes, since maintenance and repair services are not allowed in "local retail districts."
Adjust ground-floor retail requirements and allow for ground-floor residential. Prioritize continuity of retail frontage where a strong concentration of existing retail activity already exists. Outside of this core area, planners can loosen "active frontage" requirements that restrict ground-floor residential.
Offer design guidelines for ground-floor residential. Resistance to ground-floor residential often stems from real-life examples of poorly executed projects with long stretches of blank walls and low-hung windows that offer residents limited privacy.
Cities like San Francisco are creating design guidelines for new construction. In late 2023, the planning department there issued guidance on ground-floor residential so that new units promote safety, encourage activation, and put the proverbial "eyes on the street," while also ensuring comfortable and high-quality housing.
6 Design Ideas for New Ground-floor Housing
San Francisco's 2023 Guidelines for Ground-Floor Residential Design show planners and developers how to create housing units that interact and engage with the street, while offering residents comfort, safety, and privacy. These approaches are especially crucial for "large projects with significant frontage in order to create dynamic, fine-grained residential neighborhoods," but are also important for small infill buildings.
- Modulate facades and delineate individual ground floor entrances at 25-foot intervals
- Create setbacks greater than six feet that enable usable transition spaces between an entrance and the street
- Raise the residential first-floor level a minimum of three feet with stairs or a step to create separation between public and private space and prevent passersby from peering through windows
- Design protected and identifiable entryways, such as recessed entries
- Define setbacks and incorporate landscaping and elements, such as porches, patios, and landings
- Incorporate screening elements — fences, railings, gates, and planters at a maximum of about three and a half feet — that distinguish between public and private spaces
The San Francisco guidelines include several photos and drawings to illustrate each of the six concepts. Source: Guidelines for Ground-Floor Residential Design.
Get creative with commercial-to-residential retrofits. Commercial spaces built in the past 25 years are much more challenging to convert than older commercial storefronts, which are often smaller in size and scale. For newer retail spaces in large multifamily buildings, converting modern retailing design aspects — large single-pane windows, double storefront glass doors, at-grade entrances, and high ceilings — will require some creativity. How will the space be subdivided? How will residential entrances interface with the sidewalk? How can spaces be arranged within the unit to meet building requirements (such as windows for light and air)?
Ultimately, the zoning policies that govern our downtown environments will need to adapt to a changing world, where disruptive technological advances, accelerated by the pandemic, have forever changed the way we live, work, shop, and play. Planners can embrace this change by incorporating flexibility into zoning codes, revising dated definitions, applying retail requirements, and opening up downtowns to new housing opportunities — even on the ground floor.
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