Urban Overlay

So, I always picture St. Petersburg as something of an "urban oasis", a dense urban city, but still maintaining its laid-back feel. I like a walkable city. However, most of St. Pete is not what I consider walkable. Retail is still mostly on a few corridors, major grocery stores are mostly on a few select streets along with the restaurants and such. However, to create the demand needed for more neighborhood-serving retail, there needs to be density. So I thought about the possibility of an urban overlay district for the core of the city. Up-zone an entire swath of the city for single-family attached and small apartment buildings by right along residential roads. The increase in residents will support the mixed-use buildings (retail on ground floor with office and/or residential above) along main corridors, pushing the retail to the street and parking to the rear. So here is where I would do my urban overlay:



Most of these areas are already considered "urban" neighborhoods and have many of these characteristic uses as a legacy of decades past. The zoning just needs to be put in place to support further densification. And I am going to stop there...keeping this post short and sweet.

Here are some examples of what residential streets could look like:

www.fanofthefan.com

www.cityofirving.org