Commercial corridors present a cross-cutting challenge and opportunity for land-use and development. While these auto-dominated roadways characterize past patterns of successful business and infrastructure investment, in many places these corridors have devolved, creating a host of economic, safety, environmental, aesthetic and redevelopment challenges.

Around the United States, many urban and suburban communities are experimenting with how to reshape these spaces in order to revitalize lagging business districts, attract and retain residents, and to provide enhanced transit options to serve all users.

ULI’s networks and Centers have been highly involved in some of these efforts. Here, you’ll find helpful resources from ULI and other organizations about the strategies, tools, and tactics of commercial corridor and neighborhood revitalization.

Publications are listed in broad categories of source and publication type. Understandably, this list is not comprehensive but we hope this information useful.

If you’d like more detail about ULI’s work or other resources, we encourage you to contact our Resource Library or other relevant ULI content experts.

ULI Resources

Urban Land articles:

• Embracing the Street: Policies Aimed at Transportation Safety Help Land Development by Sarah Jo Peterson. February 27, 2014.
• Solutions for Suburban Strip Malls by Leslie Braunstein. November 8, 2013.
• Airport Boulevard Corridor: Where a Form-Based Code Advances Redevelopment by Sam Newberg. February 29, 2012.
• HealthLine Drives Growth in Cleveland by Jason Hellendrung. July 13, 2012.
• Repositioning Urban Corridors by Karen Gulley. February 23, 2011.

ULI Publications:

• Shifting Suburbs by Rachel MacCleery, Casey Peterson, and Julie D. Stern. (2012)
• Ten Principles for Livable High-Density Cities: Lessons from Singapore Published in partnership with the Centre for Liveable Cities (2013)
• Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Strips by Michael D. Beyard and Michael Pawlukiewicz (2009)
• Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Business Districts by Booth, Geoffrey, et al. (2002)
• Ten Principles for Development around Transit by Robert Dunphy, Deborah Myerson, and Michael Pawlukiewicz (2003)
• Ten Principles for Rebuilding Neighborhood Retail by Michael D. Beyard, Michael Pawlukiewicz, and Alex Bond. (2003)

Web posts:

• 2014 ULI Charles H. Shaw Forum on Urban Issues: Revitalizing Urban Corridors July 2, 2014
• Turning Suburban Corridors Into Something Better in Carmel, Detroit, and Arlington November 11, 2013

Presentations:

• Repositioning Suburban Corridors by Ed McMahon. Presented at the ULI Fall Meeting in 2013.

Advisory Services Panel reports:

• Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital Reuse Buffalo, NY (2011) – strategies for redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization
• Pasco County Florida (2008) – strategies for sustainable growth and transition
• Shreveport/Bossier City Louisiana (2006) – strategies for downtown and commercial corridor revitalization
• Stockton Boulevard Sacramento, CA (2009) – strategies for commercial corridor redevelopment

Daniel Rose Fellowship Land Use Challenges:

• Charlotte, NC (2011) – Independence Boulevard
• Detroit, MI (2011) – Livernois Avenue
• Hartford, CT (2013) – Albany Avenue-Homestead Avenue corridor
• Louisville, KY (2013) – Fourth Street corridor
• Nashville, TN (2010) – Place-making through infill and corridor development
• Oakland, CA (2012) – Broadway commercial corridor
• Philadelphia, PA (2010) – North Borad Street corridor
• Phoenix, AZ (2010) – Light rail, green rail and underdeveloped properties
• Tacoma, WA (2013) – Martin Luther King Jr. corridor (aka the “Medical Mile”)

District Council – technical assistance panels:

• ULI Atlanta – Fulton Industrial Community Improvement District (CID) and Atlanta Streetcar Report
• ULI Boston – Howard Street Corridor Framingham, Massachusetts
• ULI Chicago – Irving Park Road Corridor Hanover Park, IL and Devon Avenue Corridor Lincolnwood and Chicago, IL
• ULI Los Angeles – City of Baldwin Park Civic Center Site
• ULI Northwest  – Growing Transit Communities
• ULI Orange County/Inland Empire – Balboa Village Newport Beach, CA and City of Corona TOD
• ULI San Diego/Tijuana – Transit Oriented Development Site (City of National City)
• ULI SE Florida/Caribbean – The City of West Palm Beach, Florida, South Dixie Highway Corridor
• ULI St. Louis – I-170/Olive Blvd. Joint Redevelopment Task Force
• ULI Toronto – Weston 2021
• ULI Washington – Indian Head Rail Trail, Charles Country, MD, Bowie State MARC Station, and Metro Green Line Corridor Prince George’s County

Non-ULI resources

Further topical research can be found on the following websites:

• American Planning Association – multiple resources and virtual education programs.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Smart Growth – Smart Growth and Transportation, multiple resources and virtual education programs.

For Complete Streets information:

• Smart Growth America. National Complete Streets Coalition.
• University of California, Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies

Examples of solutions from other communities:

• Grow Smart Maine. Implementing the Vision: First Steps Practical Steps to Transform Commercial Strips Into Mixed-Use Centers (June 2013)
• Broward County, Florida (March 2013)
• Commercial Corridors: A Strategic Investment Framework for Philadelphia (March 2009)
• Corridors of Opportunity Minneapolis-Saint Paul Region, MN

Other relevant publications, reports, and books:

• Redeveloping Commercial Vacant Properties in Legacy Cities: A Guidebook to Linking Property Reuse and Economic Revitalization by Marianne Eppig and Lavea Brachman. Published by the German Marshall Fund of the United States in 2014.
• Understanding Strategies and Tactics in Commercial Corridor Revitalization by Diana Catherine Dyste. Published by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) University of Minnesota in 2012.
• Restructuring the Commercial Strip: A Practical Guide for Planning the Revitalization of Deteriorating Strip Corridors, by ICF International and Freedman Tung & Sasaki. Published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.
• Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America by Jana Lynott, et al. Published by AARP Public Policy Institute in 2009.
• Retrofitting Suburbia by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson. Published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009.
• Great Corridors, Great Communities by Juliette Michaelson, Gary Toth, and Renee Espiau. Published by Project for Public Spaces, Inc. in 2008.