The options of revamping vacant storefronts and commercial spaces in downtown Phoenix was presented to city council members last Tuesday.
The case submitted by the Workforce and Economic Development Subcommittee discussed five options for land use.
Joshua Bednarek, deputy director of the planning division at the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department was one of the presenters.
“The goal that we had from the conversation on Tuesday was to see if they [city council members] were supportive of us exploring plans,” Bednarek said.
The five options include: expanding the permitted use list, parking relief options, expanding multi-family residential development, providing landscapes like trees and shades, and lastly, reviewing special permits and use permit applications.
Bednarek said the process of moving forward to install these options in the city isn’t going to be easy.
“It’s a pretty intensive process,” he said. “We are a long way from actually bringing action forward because some of the options require some changes to zoning laws which are the laws and regulations associated with property use.”
The subcommittee is a long ways away but they’re excited to start having conversations and engage with the community – if they hear a general positive feedback from city council members, according to Bednarek.
“All of the five options underwent analysis review because some were broad in some cases but what will actually ultimately take some time is collaboration with the community, because the options have a lot of asking questions,” he said.
Bednarek said they’ll be able to start their refined options relatively soon.
“Once we have a set detailed plan we can say ‘here it is, here’s exactly what we came up with and here’s what we think could work’ is what we’re telling members of city council. And we’re trying to flush it out more,” he said.
An issue that arises from exploring these new options is the constant changes of the retail environment, and how consumers react to it, according to Alan Stephenson, director of planning and development.
“The city of Phoenix has a 40.5 square foot per capita commercial space compared to the US average of 28 square feet per capita so what this really means is that we have too much retail and there’s not going to be enough retailers,” Stephenson said. “We have to factor in irrelevant retailers, technological advances like social media, and look at consumer behavior.”
Stephenson discussed a new level of comfort post-COVID-19 that may decrease consumers.
There’s a comfort level in that there’s really changed consumer behavior that suddenly was magnified in the retail environment because really social media and the desire for retail spaces to be seen as that third space, that cool place to hang out when you’re not at work or you’re not at your home,” he said.
The last step for the committee and city council is to hold a text amendment, a public hearing process soon.
“It’s not going to go quickly, nor it should,” Bednarek said.
Contact the reporter at yhan99@asu.edu.
Yoori Han was the politics editor at Downtown Devil during fall 2021 and part of spring 2022.
