Agenda - Planning Commission - 01/04/2000

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J I I OCTOBER 1999 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION Chain Drugstore Side Effects By Anne Stillman As many cities and towns grapple with ways to revitalize traditional main streets and counteract the debilitating effects of commercial-strip development, malls, and superstores, a new problem posing a new set of planning challenges has entered the scene: the chain drugstore. In a well-known pattern, most retail chains build outside of central business districts, often on the outskirts of town, drawing business away from the earlier commercial core. The big chain drugstores, however, are abandoning the outlying shopping centers and aggressively moving downtown. With them, the look of strip-mall development invades Main Street itself. The drugstore chains target prominent downtown · intersections and high-visibility entryways to older commercial districts. These areas frequently contain some of the most architecturally significant buildings in town. Investment by chain drugstores in downtown locations could be a positive trend--but not at the expense of community character. Far too often, developers for the chains demolish existing historic buildings and supplant them with box-like architecture and large parking lots. Low-slung standardized buildings sheathed in synthetic stucco replace handsome historic buildings made of the finest materials. Replacing the vernacular 19th- century brick buildings that front the sidewalks.of so many small towns can break the visual backbone ora Main Street. The loss of historic buildings on key downtown corners has distressed many residents, not to mention preservationists. The trend so alarmed the National Trust for Historic Preservation that in June of this year it listed the "corner of Main and Main" across America at the top of its annual roster of Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. Even when historic buildings have not been sacrificed, the typical site plan and design of the drugstores disrupt the character of a traditional Main Street. Drugstore chains prefer one-story freestanding stores with wrap-around parking lots and drive-through windows. They emphasize convenience for automobiles and drivers. Rather than contributing to the revitalization ora Main Street, this type of development makes'a downtown less safe and attractive to pedestrians and is a detriment to businesses with traditional storefronts. With rapid growth fueled in large part by the ascent of health maintenance organizations (HMOs), the major chains-- Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and Eckerd---have recently opened new stores by the hundreds and plan hundreds more. The chain drugstore expansion has been swift and effective; catching many communities unaware and unprepared. Preservationists in New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Maine feel that their states have been particularly hard hit, but no region has been exempt and the growth spurt is far from over. In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the 1915 Fanning Building (left) and all attached stare~%nts an the block were leveled to make way for a Walgreens drugstore and parking lot (below).