This article is from Camiros Newsletter #28. The full newsletter (6 pages, color) can be downloaded from the following links as a pdf file: Pg.1  Pg.2  Pg.3  Pg.4  Pg.5  Pg.6

Corridors to Assets: Community Branding

Conventional wisdom dictates that much of the land use planning that assists municipalities and private investors in corridor planning should implement the economic goals of the corridor. These include goals and policies directed at improving traffic operations and parking, retaining and attracting businesses, reducing land use conflicts, and improving the appearance of these often hard-used landscapes.

Identity planning, or "branding" the corridor, is typically more of an afterthought - the bow on the economic development package. However, as planners begin to apply the lessons of the latest generation of marketing strategists, it is clear that community corridors are often-neglected public relations opportunities.

Consider a commuter whose only experience of a town is the transportation corridors he sees every day; a corporate buyer whose visits are restricted to an industrial district; or even vacationers stopping to refuel. Strong first impressions of the corridor - and, by extension, the municipality itself - are forming at a much faster rate than might otherwise be suspected. The task is to manage those opinions before they are formed.

Questions of how well and how quickly a revitalized corridor will repay its investment are hard to answer. It has been Camiros' experience that identity planning should be integrated into a corridor's economic redevelopment program. Targeting specific business opportunities often requires costly courtships and can drain the resources of municipal personnel. Still, the advantages of self-sustaining name-brand corridors (e.g., Michigan Avenue, Rodeo Drive, 5th Avenue) are clear.

Corridor identity, or branding, is emerging at both the suburban and neighborhood scale. While locally known streets, such as Golf Road in Schaumburg, Illinois, or Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, Arizona, conjure up positive, easily identifiable images of these communities, these images often evolve by serendipity. They can, however, be created by conscious planning.

Carol Stream, Illinois

The Village of Carol Stream, Illinois, is one community that acted on this notion. Recognizing the importance of its main corridor to the overall aesthetic of the community, the Village initiated a bold program to address a lack of cohesive identity, which they perceived as a liability in promoting economic development and maintaining strong social/cultural attachments within the municipality.

Beginning with a broad-based citizen participation program, Camiros assisted Village leaders in a program to enhance two key corridors - North Avenue and Gary Avenue. This participation process allowed citizens to help design the corridor and empowered them as stakeholders in the community enhancement effort.

The ultimate design of Carol Stream's industrial North Avenue was a $1.2 million enhancement that provided a series of visual experiences that built upon key focal points and environmental features. The plan for Gary Avenue created a major statement of community focus in the heart of the Village, with emphasis on gateways, a village center area, and enhancement of key intersections.

These corridors now have an easily identifiable presence that automatically suggests themselves to retailers considering new locations, real estate investors looking for the next development opportunity, and even diners discussing lunch options.

The 183rd Street Corridor

Often, a major road is shared by several communities. In such cases, there is often competition among them to attract the economic investment associated with an arterial roadway. But in situations where communities have a similar competitive position, cooperation - rather than competition - may bring the most reward.

Such is the case along 183rd Street, which traverses the communities of Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest, Homewood and Tinley Park, Illinois. Analysis of local corridor conditions indicated that a unified corridor design, allowing for variants to reflect the uniqueness of each community, could create an imageable environment among residents of the south Chicago suburban region. The emerging Camiros plan for the corridor is oriented to produce a "parkway" environment that unifies the corridor while allowing for community character to be emphasized in the design of specific activity nodes.

"The goal," says Richard Wilson, Camiros Project Director, "is to brand the street as a beautiful parkway, which encompasses clusters of economic activity. This will stand in contrast to other arterials in the region, which contain miles of strip malls."

Principles of Corridor Branding

Several principles emerge from the current Camiros corridor and planning activities.

"If," says Wilson, "you want to brand your corridor, you must consider the following."

1. A key element for corridor branding is the ability to establish a strong and continuous design theme, usually through landscape and streetscape elements.
2. The corridor must have clearly identifiable components, including set boundaries and clearly defined destinations within the corridor.
3. The roads should be high volume movers of traffic to maximize public exposure; however, the roadways cannot dominate the scene. There must be a balance between traffic engineering efficiency and human scale.

Cities that apply these principles, especially those that connect pedestrian-scale centers to the larger region, may find themselves gaining a competitive edge and a more satisfying physical environment, than can be achieved through the use of tax and zoning incentives alone.