On the way back from the dog park yesterday, I drove down Niagara Falls Boulevard, a busy commercial strip north of Buffalo that is the dividing line between the power suburb of Amherst and the more proletarian community of Tonawanda. Outside of a short, tree-lined and brick-paved stretch in Buffalo, Niagara Falls Boulevard was never an attractive street. However, as the sun faded, Niagara Falls Boulevard seemed even uglier than ever. Both the Amherst and Tonawanda sides of the street were lined with freestanding signs bearing electronic message centers. Many were in full animated mode, with constant chasing lights, transitions, cartoons, and the like. Storefront windows were filled with "open" signs with chasing letters and blinking frames, neon beer and lottery signs that flashed on and off, and electronic displays scrolled away in their storefronts. On the Tonawanda side, an abundance of Canadian-style portable signs, with multi-colored fluorescent letters on black backgrounds, only exacerbated the visual blight. The scene resembled Las Vegas Boulevard more so than Niagara Falls Boulevard.

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I work for a private planning firm in California that has partnered in the past with large, well-known firms who are prominent in the New Urbanism movement. (One of our former principals was a founding member of the Congress of New Urbanism and an FAICP.) One of these firms has produced dozens of New Urbanist plans for communities all over the state, at least one dozen of which we've been privy to how things have played out because we "were there."

In almost all the cases we've been a part of, the plans have essentially disintegrated despite initial community support, political momentum, and at least some financial interest from the development community. And this has happened not just since the market meltdown... but in each case it occurred after a certain amount of time had passed, usually shortly after or during environmental review. just a couple of days ago, I got a seemingly innocuous email from one of our clients, letting us know in a gentle fashion that the City Council is going "back to the drawing board" now that we're only a couple months away from EIR certification for an 800-acre New Urbanist development. The reason? Developers and financiers don't think it's viable, and the community just doesn't like it anymore.

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I want to develop a list (say 5 to 10) of large (100 to 1,000 acre) “destination retail” developments that employ the best current design practices, preferably developed in the last 5 years. Best current design practices to include such items as creative placemaking, good traffic and pedestrian management with focus on good walkability. The traffic management component is important due to the large number of people involved, so good circulation of vehicles in and out of the development is important. Transit oriented design is not a primary criteria, although provisions for future addition would be a nice side feature.

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A small bedroom community of 10,000 population does not currently have a true downtown. There is no street level retail, though the town is not completely sprawled out. There is some light density as retail is about 30' off the road, houses are about 20' from the street. The city is in the process of defining a formal downtown centered around public buildings and some of the most active retail. Does anyone here know of any other towns that have done something similar? Does anyone have any experience or tips for a community trying to do this?

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