Cities Are Paving the Way to Give Stores’ Parking Lots a Make-Over

When Orange County’s first generation of shopping centers opened in the 1950s and ‘60s, one of their biggest draws was the acres of free parking conveniently located in front of the stores.

But in the 1990s, this abundance has become a problem as some expansive blacktops degenerate into magnets for litter, abandoned cars and furniture, teen loitering and crime.

“Lots can become dumping grounds, especially if they are not maintained properly or look abandoned,” said Brian Fiske, Westminster’s planning director. “We’ve seen people park RVs and [big rig] trucks there or try to sell a used car on a lot.”

While most older parking lots remain tidy, Fiske and planners from other cities said the few unsightly ones can tarnish the surrounding neighborhood’s image and, in severe cases, breed crime.

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Communities are struggling to address the problem. Costa Mesa, for example, recently allowed one retail plaza to build additional shops on a portion of its parking lot as part of a revitalization project.

In Santa Ana, neighborhood activists convinced the owners of several shopping centers along Bristol Street to hire security guards, install high-intensity lights and chain off their parking lots at night to prevent drug dealing and cruising.

“We’ve seen a major improvement. People in the neighborhood feel better about shopping at night,” said resident Alberta Christy, head of Santa Ana’s Valley High Homeowners Assn. “It took the joint consensus of everyone to improve things.”

The post-World War II suburban shopping centers were revolutionary because they placed parking in front of businesses and in full view of motorists traveling down main highways and boulevards.

The designs catered to Southern California’s burgeoning car culture and marked a sharp contrast to the layout of prewar commercial districts, where shops were oriented to pedestrian traffic and parking was provided in the rear of buildings.

The blacktops made parking easier, but urban planners quickly realized that their stark appearance left much to be desired. So cities created strict planning guidelines in the 1960s and 1970s that require extensive landscaping as well as distinct traffic lanes to smooth auto flow.

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Many newer retail plazas include “mounded” hills along their perimeters that hide the view of parked cars from the street as well as decorative street lamps, brick walkways and outdoor patio tables.

Now, some cities are working with owners of older shopping centers to upgrade their parking lots.

In 1992, Costa Mesa approved a revitalization plan for a Kmart shopping plaza on Harbor Boulevard, which had been the source of complaints from nearby residents about late-night noise and trash dumping.

The plan allowed the center’s owners to add more stores on a portion of the parking lot and also to improve the landscaping and traffic circulation.

“They’ve made it a more attractive place, and that breeds a greater degree of responsibility,” said Willa Bouwens-Killeen, a Costa Mesa senior planner. “It no longer looks like the kind of place where people would hang out or dump trash.”

Betsy McCullough, who until recently lived in the adjacent Brighton Square condominium complex, agrees.

“We used to call it the armpit of Costa Mesa. There were homeless people, trash . . . [and] on the Fourth of July, people would come and set off their fireworks,” McCullough said. “It’s improved a lot since then. They are keeping the property up well.”

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Other cities have also permitted shopping centers to build fast-food restaurants, drive-through pharmacies, espresso bars, oil-change establishments and even a bagel shop on portions of parking lots.

“One thing it does is generate more interest from the street,” said Howard Zelefsky, the planning director of Huntington Beach, where a Bagel Express shop recently opened on a blacktop. “It gives people one more reason to come into the shopping center and look around.”

Kmart announced last month that it intends to sell or lease parking lot space at seven of its Orange County locations to video rental stores, gas stations, banks and other retailers in an effort to boost sagging revenue.

Such “infill” developments are now possible because many cities have significantly reduced the number of parking spaces they require at large shopping centers. The changes allow older shopping centers with an abundance of parking to convert some spaces to new retail developments.

In the end, city officials said the best way to prevent parking lot problems is to have a bustling and well-maintained shopping plaza.

“When you have customer activity, it discourages people from loitering or causing trouble,” Fiske said.