[Reprinted from the Wisconsin State Journal, Sunday, July 16,1995. -Ed.]
By Roger A. Gribble
Business reporter
How do you make strip malls, strip centers, shopping centers and shopping malls more bicycle- friendly?
A joint subcommittee of the Madison Transportation and Plan commissions is studying that issue, said City Planner Brad Murphy.
Recommendations on how to accomplish that at the subdivision level are expected within a couple of months, said Dan McCormick, a transportation planning engineer serving as a subcommittee staffer.
"We want to develop general principles that can be applied universally," said McCormick
Formed in 1993, the subcommittee previously dealt with transit and pedestrian issues.
"Now we want to develop standards for commercial and retail development that will make it more friendly, too, to bike traffic," McCormick said.
"We'll do case studies and hear from developers on what's feasible and reasonable," he. said. "The same principles will apply to neighborhood strip centers."
Shopping centers other than shopping malls probably date back to the 1950s in Madison, when Madison East Shopping Center was built at East Washington Avenue and East Johnson Street. It was anchored by a Manchesters Department Store.
It has undergone many changes since then and now includes a discount food store, branch library and Walgreen Drug Store.
Brad Murphy said there are significant design differences among the city's strip malls and strip shopping centers.
Some incorporate features that make them more friendly to pedestrians, bikes and traffic, he said. "We're learning a lot about how to design them that make them more friendly than they have been."
Murphy said the Burlington Coat Factory Center north of East Towne has incorporated features making it friendly to pedestrians and bikes. They include park areas with walkways and two gazebos.
Knickerbocker Place on Monroe Street also blends in well with its neighborhood, thanks in part to a design that places stores at each end closer to the sidewalk than the other stores, he said.
Nakoma Plaza on Verona Road is a shopping center that seems to undergo continuous restructuring. The space formerly occupied by the Walgreen Drug Store there has been replaced by The Book Mar- ket, but several other retail outlet spaces are vacant
And Yarmouth Crossing, which recently opened at McKee and Fish Hatchery roads in Fitchburg, has still to lease 40 percent of its 20,000 square feet of space.
Developer Todd McGrath said he is negotiating with several prospective tenants, and those who are already there have done well. Sveum Realty will move to its new building there on Saturday.
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