Tornado alley. Click on the image to view the large version. The middle part of the United States is an area that has many tornadoes, particularly in the spring. This area is known as tornado alley. The reason is because it is an area where large cold air masses and large warm air masses collide. When these air masses crash into each other, it can cause thunderstorms and they can create tornadoes.
Strip malls are usually comprised of a series of retail stores whose average size approximates about 1,000 square feet each. As such, most strip malls total less than 20,000 square feet in size. They typically have good visibility due to being generally located on the perimeters of densely populated neighborhoods, heavily trafficked commercial streets that have easy access, or on or near corners.
Los Angelesâs requirement of 4 spaces per 1,000 square feet, forexample, leads to parking lots that are 32 percent larger than the shoppingcenters they serve. For underground parking, this requirement increases thecost of building a shopping center by 93 percent; for an aboveground garagethe cost increase is 67 percent.or retail service buildings withhigh parking requirements such as restaurants, the last parking space cost$14,700 more than it added to the buildingâs value. 7 High parking require-ments thus force developers to provide parking spaces that lose money.