Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-05
FOCAL BUSINESS
CENTERS FORMED
Stores Must Be Where PEG.
pie Can Get to Them
Most Conveniently.

{ The Importance Of local neighbor-
= hood business or convenience centers
to all the outlying residential areas
of any city is very great, in the opinion
! of Charles H. Cheney Of Los Angeles,
+ chairman of the city and regional PLAN
ming committee of the American 1nsti-
stute Of Architects.
"TheSe local business centers, and
Z similar centers in all our cities, have
been established almost invariably at
important crossroads of traffic" he says.
4 "To succeed local stores must be where
people can most conveniently get to
<them from several directions, in order
TO provide enough customers for profit
able service. f.
. "In questioning storekeepers Of these
local centers in many cities during the
<course Of coming hearings, find that
most Of them expect to get their trade
within six or eight blocks OF their es-
Establishment. Larger local centers will
cater to and reach q much wider circle,
&but one still comparatively local to the
center.
Local Traffic Best.
Through trafic coming from long
distance seldom has as much purchas-
ing power as the local traffic. In fact,
swe seem to have an exaggerated idea
20
through traflc to local stores, except
for restaurants, garages and oil stations.
"In q town of 500 population the only
business center is at the railroad sta
ton, or bus station about the crossroads
and about $50 feet Of store frontage Will
actually be in use.
"In a local center OF 5000 people the
500 feet Of store frontage needed can
not profitably shoeString out along just
two main streets which ordinarily form
the crossroads that created the center,
and will tend to spill over into the
side streets, with perhaps one or two
nuclei Of local centers forming in the
II ma city of $4,000 with a $4,000
front feet of store frontage ordinarily
necessary there should be already six
or eight well established outlying local
centers.
Centers Uncontrolled.
SIN a city of $4,000 with $4,000
borhood centers, Of variable size be-
cause they have been uncontrolled.
There will also be q lot Of falsely
located and scattered store units, placed
at announcement and therefore unSuceSs-
full points by spectators who had little
or no knowledge of the traffic necessary
to store livelihood. These are the non :
conforming uses Of the belated coming
now being done In most OF our cities.
"Of course the number and characte-
<of local store centers will vary with the
local characteristics of cities. Thus
<congested tenement house cities like
New York and San Francisco tend to
develop local business centers at so
many corners of street car or traffic
streets as to make the line Of stores
more or less continuous.
% Single family detached home cities
like Los Angeles and many fiddle
Western cities have lesser need Of CEN
tiers so close together and business
units are more likely to congregate at
well established CROSSROADS much
further apart.
"There is the same danger of shoe
string spectators, however, unless
proper coming regulations clearly con-
.3ine the location of business buildings
to reasonably limited areas. This can
be done either by private restriction or
by municipal zone ordinance.
"Zoning, in fact, is the most i'm
sportant foundation for the proper lay
out of local business centerS. Concen-
Atrated centers are more successful
over wide area.
Real estate developers who can con-
troll by protective restrictions several
hundred or several thousand acres of
suburban development have a great OPP
portunity to limit the total number of
stores to something less than per
cent Of the number Of buildings an
ticipated in their district, thereby in
suring the reasonable success Of the
businesses which come into the dis
trict."