[SBC] Parking/land use question

[Charlie Denison]

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know if the city has any sort of program or policy to 
encourage or allow business owners and landlords to remove parking in 
front of stores and convert it to spaces for people?  For example, 
Somerville Ave has many small "strip mall" type developments with small 
ugly parking lots in front.  There is great potential to reclaim at 
least some of that space for outdoor cafes, more trees and places to 
sit, bike parking, etc.  Just today I bought a coffee and wanted to sit 
outside but there was no place to do so because all the space was taken 
up by parking.  With the Somerville Ave reconstruction also taking 
place, it would be nice of at least some of these businesses remove the 
parking in front and make the area more "people-friendly".  I realize 
removing parking is always controversial, but this type of parking 
really is a poor use of very valuable space.

Related question:  I would think that for "new" development, the city 
would encourage or require parking to be located in the rear of a 
building (or to the side), not in front.  Is this indeed the case?

Charlie