[OSM-talk] Retail, Commercial & Industrial

[Robert Scott]

Hello all,

Does anyone else find the area definitions of landuse={commercial,industrial} 
to make things quite difficult? Is this categorisation some kind of 
geographical/legal standard that I don't know about?

Commercial - areas that deal in commerce. That must include out-of-town 
shopping complexes. But what about an area in a city that is full of high 
rise offices? That's commerce too - but I find it difficult to put the two in 
the same basket.

What about industrial estates / business parks? A business park would probably 
be commercial whereas industrial estates would be industrial. Where's the 
dividing line between the two? There are many business parks that I have 
trouble categorising - they may be mostly offices but have a few industrial 
buildings in them.

When someone sees 'commercial' on a map, are they to think "ooh, I can go 
shopping there" and then get sorely disappointed when they end up in a 
business park? Or worse, a slightly pimped up industrial estate that I had 
trouble deciding on the classification of?

Am I to mark all business parks as industrial estates to stop this happening?

Would it be sensible to have a landuse=retail tag to mark shopping complexes 
(and generally businesses that have a public face), so that business parks & 
urban areas of high rise offices can undisputably have landuse=commercial and 
industrial estates have landuse=industrial?

(I'm not that fussed about the dividing line between industrial estates & 
business parks, unless there's a chance I might hurt some sensitive land 
developer's feelings by calling his expertly planned premium business arena 
an industrial estate)


robert.