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Calisroga's Formula Business Ordinance gives independent
<br />essab{ishmenrs a chance ro provide community services and
<br />entertainment uses.
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<br />food, firewood, gifts, and thousands of other goods and services.
<br />A local credit union accepts them for mortgage and loan fees.
<br />People also pay rent through the HOURS system. Local
<br />restaurants, cinemas, bowling alleys, and grocery stores accept
<br />HOURS, as do farmers market vendors, a local hospital, the
<br />chamber of commerce, and more than 350 businesses.
<br /> But the most powerful technique is the use of zoning
<br />authority to regulate against the corporate formula. This issue of
<br />Zoning News examines the anti-formula land-use provisions in
<br />two California communities and seeks to determine their
<br />applicability' elsewhere.
<br /> The planning arguments against formula businesses are not
<br />rooted exclusively in a zealous attachment to community
<br />identity and physical form. To employ a formula business
<br />ordinance means to deepen-the understanding of community-
<br />based economics. According to Slaty Mitchell, a researcher for
<br />the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)
<br />and author of The Hometown Advantage, locally owned
<br />businesses strengthen a community's economic health because
<br />they spend locally for the support services that corporate chains
<br />tend co centralize in regional headquarter locations. The
<br />
<br />Stephen Svete, ,alC,', is President of Rincon Consultants, Inc., a
<br />Ventura, Gdi/~rnia-based e~vironmental sciences and ph~nni~g
<br />consuhingfirm. He z~- contributing ediwr of California Planning
<br />& Development Report. The websires can he,bund ar
<br />www. i'inconcoJ~s~t[ranrs, cam and www. c~-dl: com.
<br />
<br />argument goes char when a local bookseller goes out of business a~er the
<br />opening ora chain retailer such as Barnes & Noble, the effects are more
<br />far-reaching than simply shutting the doors and terminating the
<br />employees. Local accountants, printers, bankers,, and advertisers that
<br />were patronized by the local bookseller also suffer financial [osses.
<br />Barnes & Noble and other large chain retailers typically do not ·
<br />patronize local businesses for support 'services.
<br /> Although the trend ro respond to the adverse effects of the
<br />powerful growth of formula businesses may provide a hopeful sign to
<br />those who value increased community engagement in civic life, such
<br />efforts remain a relatively isolated activity, bucking national trends
<br />in American retailing. According to Mitchell, more than 13,000
<br />local pharmacies have closed their doors since 1990. As of 2002,
<br />independent bookstores accounted for less than 15 percent of book
<br />sales, a decline from 58 percent in 1972. Neighborhood hardware
<br />stores also are in jeopardy, as recent data shows Home Depot and
<br />Lowe's capturing one-third of the hardware goods market. The effect
<br />of these trends is readily observable on-the American landscape.
<br />Empty downtown storefronts and declining first-generation
<br />suburban shopping centers are as common in the small town and
<br />city srreetscape as massive power centers are on the urban periphery.
<br />ir is perhaps a reaction to these depressing scenes that has moved
<br />opponents of chis pattern to action.
<br /> The most powerful tool for corporate zoning control is the formula
<br />business ordinance. Formula businesses are those all-too-familiar
<br />establishments with common signage, uniform-clad employees, and.
<br />corporate doctrines. Formula business ordinances take regulation to a
<br />new level, going beyond the typical zoning restrictions direcied at some
<br />problem businesses, such as size restriction ordinances used to regulate
<br />big-box retail operations.
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<br /> CalistQga
<br />The small Napa Valley town of Calistoga, California, has the
<br />broadest Formula business ordinance of those discussed in this
<br />article, with provisions for retail, restaurant, and lodging
<br />establishments. An original version was passed in 1995 and
<br />updated in 2001. Calistoga associate planner, Jo Noble, defends
<br />the ordinance, "In 1995, there Were rumors ora pending
<br />application by a fast-food chain. The planning commission
<br />asked staff to explore how such businesses could be restricted
<br />from locating here. We do well with the mom-and-pop
<br />businesses, and tourists.come here for that reason--to escape
<br />the Burger Kings and Carl's Juniors." Noble says that Calistoga
<br />moved quickly when the specter' of the. chain businesses
<br />presented itself. "The planning commission was very active in
<br />crafting the actual language. It is targeted to protect both
<br />restaurants and lodging establishments." Excerpts from the
<br />Calisroga Formula Business Ordinance stare as follows:
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<br />Formula businesses o/3en create a bland, unattractive bulk environment where cars
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