This research is designed to explore the relationship between comprehensive planning and local business districts in first-ring suburbs. Achieving an economically viable local business district in the first ring suburb is particularly difficult because many have begun to experience challenges rooted in aging infrastructure, disinvestment, and urban sprawl. Research has shown that a plan must embody several criteria for a district to become economically viable. It uses a list of criteria necessary to achieve an economically viable local business district.
By researching several planning interventions, I formulate the list of criteria that makes a local business district economically viable—defined as low vacancy rates, new and retained jobs, and new and rehabbed buildings—as a measurement standard. This list is used as a standard to measure the Deer Park Comprehensive Plan against. Ultimately this is how I answer my research question: “How is the Deer Park comprehensive plan helping or hindering the local business district’s ability to maintain its role and economic vitality?” By measuring the Deer Park Comprehensive Plan against the criteria, I determine how effective the plan will be in making the local business district economically viable.
Ultimately this thesis provides the reader with a set of criteria that can be used by practitioners in other jurisdictions to improve their downtown space. The suggestions should be tailored to fit the needs of the community, as all local business districts are unique.