The city shall be a federation consisting of multiple Neighborhoods, which will be managed and governed by Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) (or Municipal Services Districts (MSDs) under North Carolina statute).
- BIDs cannot be larger than 1 mile by 1 mile. They should be centered upon the intersection of two Boulevard Thoroughfares.
- BIDs shall be responsible for the following within their boundaries:
- communal off-street parking facilities
- litter cleanup
- BIDs may be responsible for the following within their boundaries:
- storm and sanitary sewer mains
- streetscapes, including sidewalks, drainage, lighting
- security
- relocating powerlines underground
- bike paths
- parks, playgrounds, and plazas
- sponsoring events
- promoting the district
- watershed improvement projects
- BIDs need to share oversight and governing between residents and businesses.
- like maybe two co-equal boards, one of representatives elected by the residents and the other selected by business owners in the district.
- No all-way stops, ever, anywhere. Use miniroundabouts instead!
- Detail street/road hierarchy with minimal standards streets must meet based on their
street-name suffix (so a "Blvd" won't be a little two-land road through nowhere)
- Alley: A narrow, one-lane street. (Example). Not a street proper, but an accessway behind buildings for loading and/or parking access. If in a residential neighborhood, then plantings are encouraged.
- Avenue: A two-lane street, or four-lane street with a median, lined with tall trees that will create a canopy over the street. (S Cedar St, Charlotte, NC)
- Boulevard: A multiple-lane road with a center carriageway or two for through traffic and side carriageways for parking, local traffic, and bicycles. Each carriageway to be separated by a planting strip with trees. Each side of the road must have a wide sidewalk with tree along the local carriageway. All thoroughfares in this city must conform to this standard and will be designated transit corridors. (All main thoroughfares in Chinese cities)
- Drive: A narrow street through a single-family residential neighborhood. This is a local street, probably no lane lines, and allows parking on at least one side of the street. Must include 8-foot tree planting strip and 6-foot or wider sidewalks. Intended for local traffic only. (Example)
- All roadways with a median must include pedestrians refuges at all crossings.
- How to divide large parcels of land.
- Require a grid (or very near grid) street layout.
- Prohibit cul-de-sacs (at least for pedestrians).
- Require multiple connections in and out.
- Require bridges over creeks no more than a half-mile apart.
- Require straight through roads in large lots (not that zig-zag nonsense that fails at discouraging traffic).
- Require residential neighborhoods include park land with a playground.
- Require greenways on both sides of all creeks. This is done in Korea for flood control, but is also a great amenity.
- Require preservation of trees along creeks and in parks
- Require preservation and planting of trees on residential properties
- Require preservation and planting of trees in plazas
- Buildings, except as otherise allowed below, shall have their footprint fit within a square 200 feet on each side. A large store or office is not a valid exception; they can build up. A factory or warehouse are possibly the only two valid exceptions.
- The building's main entrance shall face the street and be clearly visible from the street.
- Every building's street number must be clearly visible from the street. Secondary entrances that face a street must also display the building number.
- If a building's secondary entrance faces a different street than that on the building's address, then the street name of the building's address must also be displayed and clearly visible alongside the street number. This is also required for main entrances that face the corner of an intersection.
- If a building has multiple disjoint sections that each have a direct entrance onto a street and is separated from the rest of the building's publically accessible areas main entrance, then this section shall be assigned its own address with a separate street number along the street it is facing. For example, the main entrance opens to the lobby, but there's a restaurant next to the lobby that has a separate entrance from the street, be it the same street as the lobby or not, then it needs its own address.
- A building shall not be setback from the public sidewalk by more than 20 feet. May allow variance for some single-family housing zones, but cannot exceed 100 feet. Some commercial zones may allow a larger setback for off-street parking, but only to allow no more than two rows of parked cars.
- Gated communities provide only a false sense of security while blocking off access and discouraging walking. Thus, gated communities are strongly discouraged. Gated communities cannot be exempt from the subdivision, building size, and offset limitations outlined elsewhere.
- Commercial buildings must be multi-story, preferably with residential or offices above retail. Reserving the second floor for private storage space for ground-floor use shall not be permitted. The first two stories must be open for access and active use.
- The building footprint may be increased to a square 300 feet on each side if all walls facing the streets will be active with at least two separate leasees/stores/offices having their entrances no more than 150 feet apart.
- Stores cannot be more than 10,000 square feet on the ground floor (or any floor with direct access to the streets). A variance may be granted for big box stores and other retail that normally operates larger stores, but they cannot break building footprint size restrictions (square 300 feet on each side) or multi-story requirements. To reiterate: building multi-story is required.
- Malls shall be built under a public Boulevard Thoroughfare (or have a Boulevard Thoroughfare built over them) and provide pedestrian access to both sides thereof. A "mall" being defined as at least 200,000 sqft of retail space under one roof, whether for one occupant/leasee or divided amongst multiple. "Outdoor" shopping malls must be divided between multiple buildings and follow the provisions of subdivisions and commercial districts.
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Average size of McDonald's: 4,000 sqft
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Prototype for Walgreens stores: 14,500 sqft
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Average size of Walmart: 105,000 sqft
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Average size of Target: 135,000 sqft
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Average size of Super Target: 175,000 sqft
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Southgate Mall, Elizabeth City, NC: 250,000 sqft GLA
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RiverGate, Charlotte, NC: 750,000 sqft GLA (outdoor)
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Alamance Crossing in Burlington, NC: 855,000 sqft GLA
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Northgate Mall, Durham, NC: 900,000 sqft GLA
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Independence Mall, Wilmington, NC: 997,525 sqft GLA
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Northlake Mall, Charlotte, NC: 1,071,000 sqft GLA
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Four Seasons in Greensboro, NC: 1,141,000 GLA (outdoor)
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Friendly Center in Greensboro, NC: 1,237,000 sqft GLA
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Oak Hollow Mall, High Point, NC: 1,262,440 sqft GLA
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Crabtree Valley Mall, Raligh, NC: 1,326,000 sqft GLA
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The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, NC: 1,330,000 sqft GLA (partly outdoor)
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Concord Mills, Concord, NC: 1,334,000 sqft GLA
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Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, NC: 1,558,860 sqft GLA
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SouthPark Mall, Charlotte, NC: 1,676,223 sqft GLA
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Stores on the ground floor must keep their windows open, always displaying something or allowing visibility into the store.
- This is targeting vape shops that cover their windows to stop any prying eyes… They can go on the second floor if they do not wish to comply.
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Gyms are not allowed on the first floor, except a narrow entrance as desired, but no more than about 30 feet wide facing the street.
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The city's Thoroughfares must be lined with commercial property. Prefer retail on the ground floor, but not required. All commercial property must have their main entrances face the thoroughfare, not a private street or backyard parking lot.
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An example of storefront requirements from Midtown Atlanta may provide inspiration for retailers.
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Along Thoroughfares, permanent buildings signs will be allowed on the ground floor and the floor above it. The total number of signs on these two floors shall not be constrained (provided they do not obstruct entrances, fire exits, and the street number signs), but a constraint on the size of individual signs may be imposed. This is so retail, restaurants, and other businesses inside a building may be noticeable by pedestrians and drivers to encourage them to come into the building. Temporary signage, such as for advertisements, may be more strictly restricted.
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Buildings with multiple stores, restaurants, or other retail open to the public must feature signs on the exterior by the main entrance showing all such stores accessible through the main entrance and the floor number of each for easy pedestrian reference. See also the street signs in China and Japan for detailed examples.
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All elevators must include the business directory within the elevator, normally on the back wall. This is standard in China, Korea, and Japan and reminds people which floor they are looking for.
- The only buildings that can have a large footprint are factories and warehouses that require so much space on one floor. These buildings are encouraged to build offices above for themselves or to offer for rent.
- Shall be downwind from the city center.
- Light industry may be built along the Thoroughfares if they conform to the building footprint restrictions and do not create a noise disturbance. Such light industry may be allowed a greater setback than neighboring buildings provided that they include a decorative see-through brick or stone fence where the normal setback would be for a building, and shall stretch across the whole of the front of the property, but the building's setback from the fence cannot exceed 100 feet.
- Schools are encouraged to be placed so their school zones do not reach any Thoroughfare.
- Active adult retirement communities shall be located within one-eighth of a mile of a Thoroughfare.
- Child care centers are discouraged from locating on a Thoroughfare.
- Nursing homes, rest homes, homes for the aged, and elderly or disabled housing shall be located within one-quarter of a mile of a Thoroughfare.
- All other institional uses are encouraged to build along a Thoroughfare.
- Parking decks cannot have car access directly from any Thoroughfare. Alleys are the prefered method of access over local streets.
- All commercial property within a quarter mile of a Thoroughfare shall have no required parking minimum. The Thoroughfares are meant as walkable transportation corridors.
- Once public transit is established in the city, no new off-street parking in the Central Business District (CBD) will be allowed within office buildings. This district of no off-street parking may also be extended to other areas of concentrated office space served by public transit.
- Large retail stores and offices that require off-street parking are required to join a parking collective that provides and maintains public off-street parking for its members.
- Place two pairs of one-way streets, one north-south, one east-west, each street having 2 or 3 lanes, underground through the CBD. Egress and ingress into underground off-street parking can only be from these streets. Above these streets will be linear parks for pedestrian access to the buildings.
The storage of merchandise or materials, or the repair of motor vehicles or any kind of equipment except for the temporary storage of construction material and equipment while work is taking place on the structure where the off-street parking is located, is prohibited in all off-street parking and loading spaces, including required and unrequired spaces.
- Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) shall be permitted as an accessory to any single-family detached dwelling unit. The ADU may be exempt from the requirements of the main entrance and being visible from the street, but must keep its main entrance as close to the street as possible (though a little room may be given for architectural reasons, like having a window on each side of the door). The ADU's address must be the same as that of the main dwelling unit but with "½" appended to its street number.
- Drive-throughs are terrible! Okay, they can be allowed in alleys with the whole waiting line
hidden behind the building.
- As with parking access, drive-throughs cannot break up the streetscape too much. Multiple properties in the same block requiring drive-throughs should use the same alley with only one point of ingress and one point of egress.
- Drive-throughs cannot be allowed within the Central Business District (CBD) and other areas with limited car use.
- Should probably also not allow drive-throughs in properties abutting single-family housing.