Lawns In Front of Businesses - A Michigan Thing?

Along most of the commericial streets in Detroit and surrounding suburbs, especially along the mile and half-mile roads, there are strips of grass lining the streets between the sidewalk and the curb. Is this a common practice in many other cities throughout the U.S. or is this strickly a Michigan or midwest thing? When I've visited NYC, Chicago, DC, New Orleans, and other places, I can't recall seeing grass in front of businesses or stores. Usually there's only sidewalks with small trees planted in small spaces near the curb. What's the 411?

You mean the grass [[sometimes) ROWs? No, I don't think it's just a Michigan thing. I'm sure you could find this in just about any lower-density retail district in a city across the country.

I always wonder about this also. It's more prevalent in burbia but it seems that the grass thing is really special to metro Detroit. It's not just the strips between the sidewalks and the curb but also in front of lots of commercial buildings and parking lots. I have really only noticed it as being so widespread in metro Detroit but would think it may be common elsewhere.

This is a pre-car/post-car thing. If a city/suburb was built out before cars came into universal use, the front door is as close to the street as they can get it. Post car we added huge buffer zones between the street and the buildings. People don't need to walk as far as they did pre-car. This is universal thoughout the world.

As the car driven suburbs were built out, the zoning laws were gradually changed to require those buffer zones. Setbacks, lot sizes and building seperation requirements were increased to give a uniform look to the neighborhood. Most modern zoning now requires the grass buffer zones and prohibit building on the lot lines.

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Originally Posted by ndavies

This is a pre-car/post-car thing. If a city/suburb was built out before cars came into universal use, the front door is as close to the street as they can get it. Post car we added huge buffer zones between the street and the buildings. People don't need to walk as far as they did pre-car. This is universal thoughout the world.

As the car driven suburbs were built out, the zoning laws were gradually changed to require those buffer zones. Setbacks, lot sizes and building seperation requirements were increased to give a uniform look to the neighborhood. Most modern zoning now requires the grass buffer zones and prohibit building on the lot lines.

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Royce's initial question was why there are strips of grass between the sidewalk and the curb, instead of building the sidewalk to the curb. While I understand and agree about the zoning laws, which explains the huge front lots many buildings have.

However, your first suggestion is a bit off. I don't have the answer to the question but Woodbridge was built before the auto and it still has the strip of grass Royce is referring to.

OK, maybe it would be more correct to say the improvements in transportation technology increased the setbacks and lot sizes. But the theory is still the same.

Woodbridge was built after the introduction of mass transit in the city. This began the ability to have the larger setbacks that later increased with the application of the automobile. It is directly tied to the amount people are capable of walking. Due to the introduction of new technology, The later it was developed, the larger the setbacks became.

This is directly tied to city density and the cost of land. If everyone needs to be jammed into a small space due to a lack of transportation the land becomes extremely expensive. The extremely expensive land stops uses such as the unproductive grass strips on either side of the sidwalk.

It's a similar phenomenon to the elevator making the top floor of a building the most valuable. Before the elevator the lowest floor in a building was always the most valuable.

It's pretty common in the south too.

Frankly, it could also be that grass grows better here than many other places. Grass likes rain, sun, and cool weather. We have all three in good amounts. Warm season grasses just don't grow as green or look as nice.

How is this a Michigan thing? These lawns are all over the place in Chicago and other cities, especially in the Midwest and South.

I seem to remember hearing a city engineer explain them like this. In many cities, those strips of grass are owned by the city so that if they decide to widen the streets they do not have to negotiate with the individual property owners. This was many years ago, and it may not apply in every community, but it does sort of make sense.:)

There are countless examples of wide areas of grass between the sidewalk and street that were platted pre-auto age. As Maxine1958 pointed out, at least part of the reason is to allow for wider streets later on. An example that I'm familiar with the most: the village of Temple, MI which had two of its streets platted 100 feet wide circa 1889. The streets ultimately never became more than 22 feet wide or so, and the remainder of the right of way remains grass. This is up in rural Clare County. Not a suburb of the auto age.

Public sidewalks are generally built at the property line and the space between the two far ends of the sidewalks bookend the roadway "right of way". While in some cases the roads have expanded all the way to the sidewalk, in most cases the ROW was more than what was needed. Even though the "buffer" is often maintained by the resident/business, the land is owned by the city/county/state.

And no this isn't even remotely unique to Michigan.

St. Clair Shores did an interesting thing when they rebuilt Harper Avenue almost 10 years ago. Before the rebuild most retailers had parking directly in front of the store, sometimes cement, other times asphalt, and often just gravel. It looked hiddeous.

After the street rebuild the city required that no parking be allowed directly in front of the store between the sidewalk and street [[helps keep traffic flowing), and installed grass between the two. They also required that the businesses maintain the grass [[no weeds), although extra landscaping [[flowers, etc.) is allowed.

The before/after difference is startling, and the city's main commercial strip is much improved. In some instances where no parking was otherwise available, the city provided additional parking in the rear of the businesses.

There may be a more practical reason. Initially, grass is planted because it is cheaper; but if there is a lot of foot traffic, the grass is pulverized into mud, which is brought into the businesses, causing the owner to replace the grass with concrete. If the foot traffic stays low enough so as not to destroy the grass, it is left in place.

Just my guess.

The grass is there for asthetic reasons [[and you'll also often find trees, flower beds, etc.) In some cases [[especially in urban areas) the grassy shoulder is paved [[sometimes with concrete and often with brick pavers) to give an area a more "city-like" feel. In other cases you'll find public parking areas [[generally angled or parallel).

However, the grass is there because when the land was originally platted, the roadways were laid out in a way that allowed for easy expansion without having to purchase land from adjoining property owners. In most cases the roads only needed to be two lanes and the extra land was often used to run utilities, dig ditches or underground drain pipes, and place sidewalks and public parking. In most cases the "right of way" was large enough to accomodate all of the infrastructure with land to spare. That's where the grassy shoulders come into play.

However as areas developed and roads became major corridors the road was expanded. In many cases they might have just added a center turn lane and two lanes in each direction [[for a total of 5). That still left extra room [[as most of the major mile roads can easily accomodate up to four lanes in each direction with a center turn lane) On some of the major highways [[Fort, Telegraph, Gratiot, Woodward, Grand River, Michigan, etc.) the ROW is even bigger than the typical 90-120 ft that you see along the major mile roads. For many of the major roads the ROW is around 300 ft.

Here's an example of a typical ROW:

The yellow lines represent the property lines. Everything between the two yellow lines is owned by the respective government in charge of maintaining the roadway. This particular case is King Rd along the Riverview/Trenton border and is owned and maintained by Wayne County. Within each of the yellow property lines is a sidewalk. They are often built at the property line. Just within the sidewalk along the northern property line is a utility/power line outlined in orange. One of the cheapest ways for private utilities to run lines is to purchase rights within a public ROW. Within the ROW you'll also find approaches that connect the properties to the road within the ROW. In most cases the approach is constructed and maintained by the government but often paid for by the individual property owner. This particular ROW is 120 ft [[which is rather typical for the metro area) which is the same as many of the major spoke roads within the city of Detroit.. In that sense it can easily accomodate four lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. However, there obviously isn't enough traffic to warrant such a wide roadway.

Here's another example of a 120 ft ROW. This time its Biddle Ave in Wyandotte. The ROW is exactly the same as the King Rd example, yet appears to be completely different. For example, in the Wyandotte case the buildings are built directly adjoining the property line. Second there is a center turn lane plus two lanes of parking. Third the sidewalk is much wider than the sidewalk along King Rd. Lastly, the utilities have been moved to the alley way between the streets.

Thanks all. The info provided has been very helpful.