GENEVA – When shoppers are walking around Geneva’s downtown shopping district, a string of empty storefronts, parking lots or banks can send them straight into a dead zone.

That is not the kind of dead zone made famous by horror writer Stephen King. It is so dubbed by city planners because when it looks like the retail district ends, shoppers leave.

In a presentation to aldermen this week, Geneva City Planner David DeGroot said staff supports a total ban of first-floor offices, banks and other nonretail uses for properties in the B-2 zoning district that front on State and Third streets.