A few weeks ago a post about a business located inside of a single-family house on Grand Ave in St. Paul wanting to expand out to the sidewalk reminded me how much I like single-family houses with storefronts on them. As far as I can tell, this type of building represents the best of all worlds in urbanism: it’s an incremental intensification of land use that also preserves existing structures (resources), and is generally undertaken only by locally owned businesses, keeping money in the local economy.
Bryant Ave. and 36th St.
Franklin and Lyndale
West side of 11th just North of Franklin
Nicollet and 34th St.
East side of Bloomington just North of Lake St.
Grand Ave. and 33rd St.
East side of Chicago Ave. North of 38th
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another shot of the Chicago & 38th one… http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eSzCPrtFbo/UP_6C3sRUOI/AAAAAAAAIlk/l-EE48CUnLQ/s1600/sotw55f.jpg
There is a vacant one right next to the Riverview Theater that I’d love to see used. http://goo.gl/OrzTpE
The Mortimer’s (Lyndale & Franklin) is a crazy frankenstructure.
Others I’ve seen around the same area are Bulldog at Lyndale & 26th and the super crappy convenience store at Grand & 28th.
The ones along commercial corridors are likely zoned for commercial or mixed use, but there are also a handful of them along minor corridors that are probably considered “non-conforming” by the city. I know for sure the one across from my old apartment at Grand & 28th was non-conforming (R2 zoning or something like that)
Use-based zoning kind of stinks, doesn’t it?