Golden Valley for many years enforced a 300-foot setback, and more recently a 200-foot setback for commercial or industrial uses fronting the Belt Line. The setback is measured from the edge of the main traveled roadway. The effect of this requirement has been to restrict nonresidential development to those uses which require large parcels of land and extensive landscaping or extensive parking facilities. This, in turn, favored relatively large, highly capitalized enterprises and discouraged strip development of small establishments crowded against the highway or frontage roads (Figures 23, and 24). The enforced setback requirement has been so demanding upon any potential developer that it has had almost the same effect as controlled access. The village has apparently developed a sense of community obligation to preserve the beautification inspired by engineer Carl Graeser and carried out by the WPA. An annual civic "Lilac Festival" takes its name from the lilac plantations along the Belt Line.

In contrast, the village of Crystal has permitted commercial uses within 22 feet of the Belt Line right-of-way; and St. Louis Park has permitted them within five feet. Commercial strip development has occurred on the Belt Line in those two municipalities (Figure 25).

It is clear that circumstances of timing and zoning have forced much retail and service development away from Belt Line frontage. Yet 153 retail and service establishments had located in the study

strip by 1959, 80 per cent of them since 1945. These establishments located near the major intersections, but they adjusted their choice of specific site to the conditions imposed by local zoning regulations and availability of land. If feasible sites were not available for de­velopment on the Belt Line, adjustments were made through (1) de­velopment of small sites on radial highways, (2) redevelopment of existing residential areas, (3) utilization of vacant lots in existing commercial strips, or (4) extending the "waiting period" on vacant land until a developer with a potentially large capital investment appeared.

6. Manufacturing-Warehousing and Accessibility

Tables 5 and 6 indicate the relationship between manufacturing and warehousing establishments and distance from a major state or U. S. highway. Excluding the large, old quarry site on the Belt Line, 89 per cent of the manufacturing and warehousing establishments, embracing 74 per cent of the acreage, are within 1, 000 feet of a major highway, and 75 per cent of the establishments, embracing 57 per cent of the acreage are within 1, 000 feet of both a major highway and a railroad line. Until this time, there is only one large development outside the 1,000-foot zone. That is a very large, new hardware wholesaling warehouse and office building. It fronts a major highway and is served by a rail siding, but the building is more than 1,500 feet from the highway, and the railway spur is more than 3,000

feet long. Highway and trackage needs are met for this establishment although the land requirement for the establishment was larger than most others in the study strip.

The cluster of establishments (Table 6) nearest a highway and farthest from trackage represents the developments near the intersection of the Belt Line with T. H. 5 at the south end of the study strip. That is the only significant industrial cluster without trackage.

Although most manufacturing and warehousing establishments have developed near a railway line, many are not actually served by trackage. Of those establishments within 1,000 feet of a railway line, tracks actually serve only 38 per cent of the manufacturing establishments (with 49 per cent of the acreage) and 27 per cent of the ware-

houses (with 51 per cent of the acreage). Among all manufacturing and warehousing in the study strip, trackage serves 30 per cent of the establishments on 49 percent of the acreage. These data reflect a tendency for manufacturing and warehousing establishments to be located near each other as well as near rail lines, and a tendency for only the larger establishments to use rail transportation.

In addition to major highway and rail access, distance from the Minneapolis central business district (CBD) also appears to be a factor in the industrial pattern. To provide a measure of this relationship, the industrial areas were arranged in seven groups. Six of the groups are associated with major highway-railway intersections. The highways and railways are identified in Table 7. The seventh

group, located at the junction of T. H. 5 and the Belt Line, has no trackage. It is in the vicinity of the proposed interchange between T. H. 100 and T.H. (I. R.) 494. A railway line passes approximately 3, 000 feet to the west of this district, and trackage is likely to be involved in future expansion on the west side of the Belt Line (see below).

The graph in Figure 26 shows that there was almost a linear relationship, in 1959, between distance from the Minneapolis CBD, by the shortest divided highway route, and acreage of manufacturing and warehousing development in five of the six trackage-highway districts. It should be emphasized that the present relationship has evolved over the past decade through a series of intermediate stages during which both highway improvements and industrial development had different patterns than they have today. In general, as the highway pattern be-

comes more complete, the closer becomes the relationship between distance from the CBD and manufacturing-warehousing development.

It is noteworthy that the five locations in nearly linear relationship with distance from the CBD all involve either the Minneapolis, Northfield, and Southern (MNS) or Minneapolis and St. Louis (MSL) railways. Both lines lead southward from the fast growing western side of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, bypass the metropolitan mass to the east, and provide direct connections to the eastern United States through Chicago or Peoria. Both railroads have actively sought industries of widely varying size on their lines. Both are headquartered on the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities area; both look mainly to the Twin Cities for their business. The sixth location is on the Great Northern railway's main line between the Twin Cities and the Pacific Northwest. That company traditionally has been more concerned with through traffic to and from the West. Also, there was no major radial highway near the intersection of the Great Northern with the Belt Line. The result was a lag in development. The Great Northern now serves the large new industrial park south of T.H. 12, west of T.H. 100. The combination of two major highways, trackage on two rail lines, and proximity to the Minneapolis CBD is producing a major node of industrial development in this location. It is likely that the "Great Northern" dot will shift in the next few years into its proper position on the graph in Figure 26.