Jackson Free Press

Last week I spent some time learning about the Mississippi Development Authority's new plan to revitalize old, ugly strip malls, called the Retail Center Revitalization Program. (Read more here or in our print edition Wednesday.) MDA brings up a good point: While the Mississippi Main Street and others have made much-appreciated strides in making downtown areas beautiful places, many of the arterial roads leading into town are littered with drab concrete rectangles made even less attractive by the addition of for-sale signs that won't budge. The building's original owners and tenants have long ago moved on to a newer strip mall, leaving a stubborn suburban blight that diminishes the beauty of other parts of town that the community is rightfully proud of.

Will MDA's program forever change Mississippi's landscape? Probably not. It's only a pilot program with about $200,000 to work with, and even if it expands in the future, there's only so much one agency can do across an entire state. My hope is that MDA will jumpstart a conversation about how communities can take care of the whole town, not just brand-new developments or trendy, historic neighborhoods. Part of taking care of our communities will involve adjusting our thinking—and our zoning along with it.

At a summit to roll out the program, John Poros, director of the Carl Small Town Center at Mississippi State University, said cities tend to zone for far more retail space than they need. In my opinion, cities and developers need to stop treating places in their community as disposable resources to be flattened, paved and abandoned when the next big thing on the other side of town comes along.

Lest you think vacant buildings are only a problem in Jackson, picture the developments on Lakeland Drive in Flowood 20 years from now. With so much empty space just waiting to be built up and monetized, it doesn't seem like a problem to fill the area with shiny new stores and parking lots. But there are other plenty of places in the Metro area that seem ripe for development as well. What happens when anchor stores pack up and move to a newer strip mall? Do Flowood and its property owners have a plan for what happens when people can't be bothered to drive to an old, out-of-the way shopping center, especially if gas prices keep rising?

Poros suggested developers make retail areas denser and more walkable, so people can park once and walk to many different places. Slowing down traffic and encouraging people to stroll through shopping areas also gives people more time to look in store windows and see things they want to buy. Poros also said people should design shopping centers—whether they are brand-new or just being rehabilitated—for multiple uses, and include spaces, such as parks, for community events. The goal is to integrate retail, restaurants and offices into the community life, instead of just dumping a strip of stores in front of a convenient road.

To get rid of suburban blight, communities will have to start caring. And, let's be honest, as much as people may dislike driving past a dead strip mall, they tend not to care enough to take action unless it's in their own neighborhood. If a retail center becomes part of the community—whether through hosting community events or by becoming a multi-use building that includes offices and living spaces—maybe people will care enough to make sure it stays viable and isn't left for dead.

We can start by finding new ways to repurpose old strip malls, as MDA is doing, but we should also take a close look at strip malls while they are in the planning stages. While it is tempting to laud each new shopping center for bringing in tax revenue, we have to think about what we may be losing in the future if the project is unsustainable. Cities will have to rethink zoning, property owners will have to rethink responsible development and ordinary people will have to be vocal about what they want in their city's future. The strip mall model may be lucrative for a few, but if it is hurting communities, we will have to demand better.

Previous Comments

ID

164921

Comment

While I agree that the repurposing of blighted strip-malls is admirable, it might be a better idea to simply remove them and concentrate development in areas which are already urban or have the potential to become so. Suburban sprawl is not a sustainable practice, so nipping it in the bud now is a good idea. Renovate those strips where they have the potential to spark further urbanized development and remove them where they only accelerate sprawl. I realize that this idea will not be popular with most suburbanites, but the reality of the not-too distant future appears to dictate such development.

Author

tombarnes

Date

2011-09-13T11:37:15-06:00

ID

164922

Comment

Much of this is a direct result from the GO Zone bonds that allowed developers from anywhere in Mississippi construct new strip malls. This killed the potential redevelopment of much of the intended area around the Gulf Coast. Jackson needs something like the "smart code" for future zoning concerns.

Author

Sanity

Date

2011-09-13T14:15:32-06:00

ID

165004

Comment

Unproductive areas could be turned into community farm co-ops to grow and distribute fresh produce at reduced prices.

Author

Francis Rullan

Date

2011-09-21T10:16:01-06:00