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Page Three THE ZONING REPORT <br /> <br />through small or no setbacks, liberal height <br />limits and waiver of off-street parking require- <br />ments. Open type commercial uses with low <br />bulk density are discouraged. <br />In the CBD zone, codes often require site <br />plan and building facade design review for all <br /> <br />proposed development, to be coordinated with <br />nearby properties for unity and coherence of <br />downtown development. Bonus incentives might <br />be available for plazas, courts, arcades, pedes- <br />trian walkways and other types of small-scale <br />open areas. Access to buildings by dr{veways <br />across sidewalks often is limited and freight <br />movement is required from alleys, with docks <br />located in courts or within buildings so that <br />trucks do not block or unload from sidewalks. <br />This zone cannot be mapped outside the down- <br />town area as a freestanding zone. <br /> Codes in larger central cities might have <br />several CBD subzones., one each for the most <br />intensive high-rise office and retail cores, and <br />other subzones at a lower height and building <br />density peripheral to the high-rise zones. <br /> <br />The downtown support heavy commercial zone, <br />or CBD frame zon% is provided by about 40- <br />50% of zoning codes, generally in larger com- <br />munities. The CBD frame zone is oriented to <br />uses that support downtown business uses or <br />that need a central urban location on less <br />costly sites outside the downtown core. Codes <br />not having a CBD frame zone provide for their <br />CBD support uses in the light industrial zone <br />by right and in the highway commercial zone, <br />perhaps as conditional uses. <br /> Typical uses supporting downtown activities <br />include office supply stores, off-street parking <br />lots (as a temporary holding use of land pro- <br />posed for later development), passenger trans- <br />portation terminals, truck and freight terminals <br />and yards~ warehouses for downtown stores, <br />wholesaling and light industriaI businesses in <br />high-loft buildings needing nearness to down- <br />town uses such as a commercial printer. Typi- <br />cal central area uses seeking less costly sites <br />in the CBD frame area include specialized re- <br />tail stores and services such as furniture <br />stores, art supply, blueprinting, auto rental <br /> <br />offices and storage lots, large parking buildings <br />with monthly rates for downtown employees, <br />and less expensive and less elegant hotels, <br />motor hotels, restaurants and lower-rental of- <br />fice buildings. Many of these uses provide free <br />delivery and shuttle bus service to the down- <br />town core. <br /> <br />Planned business zones are included in all <br />codes, generally in recent codes as overlays <br />over the few basic business zones. But many <br />codes provide separate freestanding shopping <br />center zones intended to be located in newer <br />areas and on large vacant sites in established <br />areas, to gain the benefits of unified control <br />over design, tenant mix and project mainte- <br />nance. <br /> Some codes provide two shopping center <br />zones~ one for small neighborhood centers and <br />the other for any larger shopping centers. <br />Moderate sized vacant tracts surrounded by <br />residential neighborhoods that are proposed for <br />a shopping center are assured to be developed <br />to low-intensity standards and uses acceptable <br />to residential neighbors if zoned only for small <br />neighborhood centers with neighborhood-scale <br />uses, height limits and large landscaped set- <br />backs. Otherwise, with the general-use shop- <br />ping center zone, tracts can be developed for <br />any commercial use. <br /> Most codes require planned business zones to <br />take the uses of the base zone if an overlay or <br />the uses of the comparable business zone if a <br />shopping center zone. Specific additional uses <br />can be added or omitted by the elected board <br /> <br />when it approves the rezoning, to be allowed <br />in the project at any time in the future.' <br /> <br />Office, research and parking business <br />support zones and overlay districts <br /> <br />Zoning codes with office zones have a profes- <br />sional offices transition zone intended to be <br />located on small sites as a buffer or transition <br />be~veen residential and business zones. The <br />zone often is mapped at the terminus of a strip <br />commercial zone along major streets to provide <br /> <br />October 21, 1994 Issue <br /> <br /> <br />