Thanks to Jessica for pointing out the sorts of establishments that are currently zoned "as of right" on Empire Blvd.
Lest anyone think that zoning doesn't matter, I give you Article III Chapter 2 32-25, which tells you what sort of commercial enterprises are allowed in C-8, the current Empire zoning. Remembering that Empire leads up to the Botanic Garden and the second greatest public park in the world, I find it unconscionable that we would actually consider leaving the zoning as is. I'm told that Empire, and its previous incarnation as Malbone Street, have pretty much always been junk, automotive and before that horsey establishments. Time for a change folks.
Some of my favorites are in bold:
Use Group 16 (C8, current Empire Blvd zoning) consists of automotive and other necessary semi-industrial #uses# which:
(1) are required widely throughout the city; and
(2) involve offensive noise, vibration, smoke, dust, or other particulate matter, odorous matter, heat, humidity, glare, or other objectionable influences, making such #uses# incompatible with #residential uses# and other #commercial uses #.
Retail or Service Establishments
Animal hospitals or kennels
Automobile, motorcycle, trailer or boat sales, open or enclosed
Blacksmith shops
Building materials sales, open or enclosed
Carpentry, custom woodworking or custom furniture making shops
Crematoriums, human
Electrical, glazing, heating, painting, paper hanging, plumbing, roofing or ventilating contractors' establishments, open or enclosed
Fuel, ice, oil, coal or wood sales, open or enclosed,
Household or office equipment or machinery repair shops, such as refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, deep freezers or air conditioning units
Machinery rental or sales establishments
Mirror silvering or glass cutting shops
Motorcycle or motor scooter rental establishments
Poultry or rabbit killing establishments
Riding academies, open or enclosed
Sign painting shops
Silver plating shops, custom
Soldering or welding shops
Stables for horses
Tool, die or pattern making establishments, or similar small machine shops
Trade schools for adults
Automobile, truck, motorcycle or #trailer#
Automobile laundries, provided that the #zoning lot# contains reservoir space for not less than 10 automobiles per washing lane
Automotive service stations, open or enclosed
Vehicle Storage Establishments
Commercial or public utility vehicle storage
Dead storage of motor vehicles
Public transit yards, open or enclosed, including #accessory# motor fuel pumps
Heavy Service, Wholesale, or Storage Establishments
Carpet cleaning establishments
Dyeing establishments, with no limitation on type of operation, solvents, floor area or capacity per establishment
Laundries, with no limitation on type of operation
Linen, towel or diaper supply establishments
Moving or storage offices, with no limitation as to storage or #floor area# per establishment
Packing or crating establishments
Photographic developing or printing with no limitation on #floor area# per establishment
Trucking terminals or motor freight stations, limited to 20,000 square feet of #lot area# per establishment
Warehouses
Wholesale establishments, with no limitation on #accessory# storage
6 comments:
Pretty regularly life takes me to other parts of the country, often enough to small cities in the west that are collections of strip-malls along the main roads leading toward the central business districts.
The strip malls often have their own character. Sometimes, anchored by a supermarket beside a drugstore flanked by a pizza joint.
Sometimes, there's fast-food place next to a liquor store, which is beside the latest form of retail store-front -- the e-cigarette store, which also sells tobacco products. Then comes the urgent-care center, the drugstore and the non-denominational chapel.
Often, the last establishment at the end of the row in these mall-based line-ups is the crematorium.
In the space of a single strip-mall you can go through many stages of life.
gotta say, slappz, that's the first perceptive and strangely empathetic thing you've ever written on this blog. thank you for your astute observation.
i too have traveled the country a great deal, and i live in fear that nyc will go the way of kansas city
While y'all are there looking at the zoning text, check out Use Group 13 (open amusement areas "not appropriate in local, secondary, major, or central shopping areas"), also permitted in C8 (and C7) zoning as-of-right. Circus, anyone?
Tim,
It seems to me that slappz's comment was in FAVOR of strip malls, which would be in character.
Perhaps I've grown soft, living off fresh tomatoes and raspberries as I have these past days, but I think he was actually being darkly poetic. His wasn't so much a treatise in favor of sprawl as a description of the status quo. And it's why I suspect beneath the bluster there's a wounded child wailing for approval and tenderness. Beneath the wrinkled tin foil lies a delicate bundt cake. Lemon perhaps, certainly sour, but yearning for a little stevia in his life.
Re: Circus, anyone?
Bring in the Universoul Circus!
It would be a hoot to see elephants marching on Empire.
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