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Generally, commercial and residential sites can be successfully integrated through appropriate <br />site design where concerns of adjacent neighbors are addressed. With good design, commercial <br />buildings can complement the appearance of homes in adjacent residential neighborhoods. That <br />can be done through the use of similar building materials, textures, and design styles. Also, <br />dumpster locations and delivery docks on commercial sites can be screened so that they are <br />aesthetically pleasing and hidden, and commercial sites can be designed to provide pedestrian <br />access and pedestrian amenities at the rear of commercial buildings. <br />With good building and site design, buffering between commercial and residential uses can be <br />reduced, and both vehicular and pedestrian access can be provided between residential and <br />commercial sites. Within residential neighborhoods, streets that provide direct access to <br />commercial sites can incorporate traffic calming designs such as "bulb -outs" and can incorporate <br />signs and enforceable approval conditions prohibiting use of the streets by delivery vehicles. To <br />provide a transition from residential to commercial uses, entrances to commercial sites from <br />local residential streets can be attractively designed. <br />To accomplish the integration of commercial and residential sites, the county should take a <br />number of actions. Those actions primarily involve revising existing county land development <br />regulations for landscaping and buffering, vehicular and pedestrian access, traffic calming, <br />aesthetics, and site design to provide for the interconnectivity and overall integration of <br />commercial and residential uses. One of the most effective regulatory tools that the county has <br />available to it to achieve the integration of commercial and residential uses is the mixed use <br />planned development. <br />➢ Mixed -Use Planned Developments <br />According to the county's Planned Development (PD) regulations, PD projects can allow for the <br />integration of commercial and residential uses into a single mixed-use project. Moreover, <br />neighborhood commercial uses can be integrated into residential areas via special site plan and <br />urban design techniques applied through the PD process. Within PD projects, commercial areas <br />can be connected directly to residential areas through local roads and pedestrian walkways. <br />Other than its PD regulations, however, the county does not have a mechanism to ensure the <br />effective integration of commercial uses into residential areas. In fact, county regulations have <br />had the effect of separating commercial and residential uses. One action that the county should <br />take to promote mixed use development with integration of commercial and residential uses is to <br />eliminate the allowance of stand-alone neighborhood nodes. Doing so would provide an <br />incentive for developers to use the county's PD regulations that permit commercial uses to be <br />developed as a component of an overall residential project. <br />In the past, the county's allowances for incorporating neighborhood commercial uses into <br />residential PDs have been ineffective. While the county has been successful in approving plans <br />for neighborhood commercial uses to be integrated into residential areas as part of PD projects <br />Future Land Use Element 102 <br />