What Is Mixed-Use Development?

What do Main Street in Disneyland, Manhattan, and Barcelona all have in common? They all reflect a development pattern known as mixed-use development. In contemporary American cities, the term has become a buzzword for new developments that are turning away from single-use development (residential only or commercial only, for instance) toward a more livable, denser pattern in which homes are located directly among shops, offices, and other uses.

A typical mixed-use development might include a ground-floor commercial space with several floors of residential units above. The building will typically share walls with its neighbors and sit close to the street. The result is a pedestrian-oriented streetscape that one might associate with a European city or an older American downtown.

The historical default

For an American who grew up in a 20th-century single-family neighborhood, this type of development may seem to be a radical departure from the status quo. Throughout much of the 20th and early 21st centuries, mixed-use development in the United States was largely regarded as a pattern reserved for legacy high-density cities such as New York or San Francisco. However, before World War II, single-family suburbs as we know them were rare. Mixed-use development was the norm, both across the country and around the world, particularly in places like Europe, where walled cities required dense development.

Indeed, when one looks back at the history of city building, the American-style single-use development pattern was the radical change. The first purpose-built suburbs of the early 20th century were meant to reflect a traditional rural village, complete with a small commercial district, land for farming, and a connection to the city via streetcar or rail. As suburbs became increasingly popular, those features were quickly dropped. Rail was replaced with highways, farmland became lawns, and commercial districts were left out completely. This pattern was driven by postwar efforts to subsidize home ownership through the G.I. Bill, the widespread adoption of the automobile, and massive federal investment in highway construction.

How zoning separated uses

These national trends were enabled by developments in planning policy that formed the basis of planning practice in the United States. Throughout the 19th century, American cities became increasingly polluted due to industrialization. In response, cities began adopting zoning and public health laws to improve conditions for residents.

In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., establishing a municipality’s right to regulate land use through a zoning ordinance. This was the watershed moment for what is now known as “Euclidean zoning,” the dominant form of zoning in the United States. Euclidean zoning restricts development within a district to a single type of use: residential, commercial, institutional, industrial, and so on. While some mixing of uses may be allowed in a commercial district, residential districts are almost always restricted to residential uses exclusively.

While the first zoning ordinances were ostensibly created to protect residents’ health and property values, cities quickly realized they could be used to pursue other agendas. In the Jim Crow era, cities used zoning to explicitly enforce housing segregation. After explicit segregation was outlawed, many places maintained those divisions through what we now call “exclusionary zoning”: restrictions such as large minimum lot sizes, minimum home sizes, and prohibitions on multifamily and mixed-use development. These restrictions often mean the only housing allowed is prohibitively expensive for most residents.

The return of mixed use

Over the past several decades, the drawbacks of the suburban model have become increasingly apparent, leading many cities and developers to reconsider mixed-use development as a way to improve livability, decrease car dependency, and create more housing. This movement, known as New Urbanism, gained prominence with new communities such as Seaside, Florida, designed by architects Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk in the 1980s. Since then, the approach has shaped hundreds, if not thousands, of projects around the country.

Today, many cities are amending their zoning to allow mixed-use development in areas previously restricted to a single use. Some are adopting form-based codes, which de-emphasize use restrictions in favor of design requirements that create a unified urban form while giving property owners more flexibility over uses. The irony of New Urbanism, of course, is that it is mostly a return to old urbanism: human-scale buildings, mixed uses, and pedestrian-oriented streets, with modern improvements such as accessibility and bike lanes.

Mixed use in Massachusetts today

In Massachusetts, mixed-use development has become a regular part of local zoning conversations. Many communities have adopted mixed-use or village-center districts, and state laws such as the MBTA Communities zoning requirement have pushed communities to allow more housing near transit, often in districts where mixed use is also allowed. For property owners and project teams, the details matter: whether residential and commercial uses are allowed by right or by special permit, how ground-floor requirements are written, and how parking is handled can decide whether a mixed-use project works.

While Americans may be initially skeptical of mixed-use development, well-designed projects can quickly become cultural and economic hubs that outperform the strip malls and subdivisions they replace. It’s no surprise to planners that people love mixed-use places, considering how many travel to European cities, or to Main Street in Disneyland, to experience a walkable environment. With more successful mixed-use developments completed every year, the stigma around mixed use may soon be a thing of the past.