Vision Fairbanks Downtown Plan - Fairbanks North Star Borough

Essential Retail Hot Spot Development Standards
It is often said that retail is the hardest part of any
development project to “get right.” With this in mind,
conditions affecting successful pedestrian-oriented
retail development have been examined by the retail
development industry and applied to shopping malls
and “lifestyle centers,” the very competition with which
downtown Fairbanks grapples.
Historic Main Streets
Successful retail principles and requirements are based
on the experiences of main street merchants in historic
downtowns. Buildings of rich architectural character,
built to the sidewalk, with large windows and doors
for retail display, awnings and wide sidewalks for
pedestrians have been replaced. These fundamentals
have been forgotten and new retail development tends
to be suburban in character and detrimental to a strong
downtown retail core.
Retail Standards Intent
The following standards should be a part of the new
zoning ordinance developed for downtown. The intent
of the Essential Retail Development Standards on the
following page is to establish a template that prescribes
only those requirements that are necessary to create a
competitive, whole and integrated retail development.
These requirements include:
Required ground-floor retail
Build-to lines
Active edges
Retail Use
Retail merchandise shops or restaurants should be
required for all ground-floor development on the parcel
street frontages identified on the diagram to the right.
Barnette Street
1st Ave
2nd Ave
3rd Ave
4th Ave
5th Ave
6th Ave
Cushman Street
Golden
Heart Plaza
Cushman
Square
Required
Ground-Floor
Retail
Required Ground-Floor Retail Diagram
Vision Fairbanks Downtown Plan | Land Use Framework | Adopted August 21, 2008 43
Lacey Street
Retail Framework