Transit-Oriented Development in the United States: Experiences, Challenges, and Prospects (2004) / Chapter Skim
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PART 4 CASE STUDIES Case studies are to policy research what microscopes are to science. In this report, they help "zoom in" on many of the important issues, providing a more focused, grounded context.
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183 Chapter 10 TOD in Boston: An Old Story with a New Emphasis Boston is an ideal transit story, with a long, rich tradition of transit-shaped development and a healthy present-day economy that is receptive to TOD. National comparisons show that the city of Boston ranked third in transit's market share for commuting at 33%, slightly behind Washington, D.C.
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of traditional Boston neighborhoods were eliminated in the rush to modernize. Boston's TOD story is about the way the city has tried to take back its old neighborhood character without sacrificing modernity and mobility.
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Boston the modern infrastructure necessary for neighborhood TOD-based revitalization. A second crucial decision for Boston's current TOD was Governor Dukakis's revitalization of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
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the private sector enthusiastically embraced TOD. Boston's TOD Toolbox Boston does not so much plan for TOD as it does find ways to maintain its traditional urban fabric, a fabric that has been transit oriented from the beginning, having been built for the most part around trolley and streetcar lines.
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EPA Parking Freeze The 1972 Clean Air Act had a profound and lasting effect on Boston's recent development. In the early 1970s, city leaders negotiated two agreements with the EPA to mitigate air pollution in the Boston area.
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real-estate market is red-hot, most development occurring in central Boston is both transit oriented and lucrative, eliminating the need for subsidies. While Boston's legacy of TOD is in no danger today, it was once threatened by new highways planned for the city.
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chance for promoting TOD in underdeveloped communities. Generally, foreclosed properties are abandoned or, if active, need improvements and safety repairs.
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leasing of transit-agency land to a developer in return for a stake in the development project -- is not common in Boston, though much of the city's development is physically oriented to transit stations. While Boston owes much of its TOD pedigree to its age, history also explains why joint development has not occurred very frequently.
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also gotten a renewed commitment from the state of Massachusetts in the form of the Office of Commonwealth Development. Formed by the newly elected Governor, Milt Romney, the new office is headed by Douglas Foy, a TOD advocate.
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192 involved huge public outlays to assemble the land needed for such large building scales. Boston's "Big Dig" will provide numerous opportunities for large-lot transit-supportive redevelopment in years to come (see Text Box 10.3)
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193 North Station/Fleet Center North Station/Fleet Center. The photo on the left shows the west side as seen from the outbound platform of the Green Line at North Station; the photo on the right shows the west entrance to North Station/Fleet Center.
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Rejuvenation: Back Office Space with a Front Office Location East-coast cities are filled with aging buildings plagued with safety and environmental problems. The State Street Bank Building, in the heart of Boston's financial district, is one of these buildings (see Photo 10.3)
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195 The Big Dig: New Land for TOD Set for completion in 2005, the placement of Boston's Central Artery underground ranks as the largest, most expensive highway project in U.S. history.
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196 increased gridlock on Boston's freeways. Main Street and TOD Another important force in Boston's TOD renaissance has been its cadre of local nonprofit organizations that specialize in smaller neighborhood-scale development projects.
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197 drew scant interest from the development community. The Main Street Program has also become a key component of Boston's comprehensive TOD strategy.
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refurbished building was designed with a structural support to allow an office tower to be built when market demand permitted (see Photo 10.5) .25 Today, South Station is poised to realize its full TOD potential.
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199 the Seaport District is the creation and utilization of MBTA's Silver Line, an underground dedicated busway linking South Boston Waterfront to Downtown Boston's South Station. The Silver Line is greater Boston's first BRT service.
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200 and the World Trade Center -- and two above-ground stations -- D Street near the Fish Pier and the new convention center -- are planned for the Seaport. Most development will be within an easy walk of these stations (see Map 10.3)
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passengers will use the Silver Line each workday. The Seaport District is also slated for high-density residential development.
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Boston are nodal in form. Plans are under way to create a transit corridor that orbits the central city.
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203 The Urban Ring If the Seaport District is the future of TOD in the city of Boston, then the Urban Ring is the TOD future of the surrounding communities. The Urban Ring is a circumferential corridor, 15 miles in length and 1 mile wide, that encircles Boston's core, running through the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline.
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204 The Urban Ring Phase II of the Urban Ring Project. When it is completed, the Urban Ring will be the first circumferential transit corridor in the United States.
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buildings or storefronts near transit stops are potential diamonds in the rough ready to be polished and redeveloped. A fourth lesson is that transit has proven to be a lynchpin in a more sustainable form of urban regeneration.
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Photo 10.3 P Vanderwarker Photo 10.4 B
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207 Chapter 11 New Jersey's Transit Villages: From Refurbished Rail Towns to Ferry-Oriented Development TOD has a long history in the state of New Jersey, going back to turn-of-thecentury streetcar suburbs and commuterrail towns. Following decades of decline and disinvestment, today a movement is underway to re-energize neighborhoods surrounding longstanding train stations and to create vibrant and attractive transit-oriented communities.
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arts, and entertainment, Manhattan's economic future remains bright. This is reflected in high residential rents.
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209 Map 11.1. NJ TRANSIT Rail Passenger Lines in Northern New Jersey.
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the site."2 The Times article went on to say: The coming of Manhattan Direct rail service has brightened up the downtowns in places like South Orange, where new rail stores have opened to cater to commuters and close-by residents, and in Morristown, where a development of 10 new town houses costing close to $1 million each has all but sold out.3 To date, these enhancements have benefited towns west and southwest of Manhattan. The opening of the $450-million rail transfer station in Secaucus will soon benefit rail commuters northwest of Manhattan (in the northeast corner of the state)
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growth. The state's Office of Smart Growth provides administrative and technical support for implementing the state land-use plan and directs state capital grants to local projects that embrace smart-growth principles.
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overloaded freeways and rail corridors. The Transit Village Initiative State interest in TOD gained momentum with NJ TRANSIT's 1994 release of a handbook on TOD, Planning for Transit-Friendly Land Use, chock full of illustrations and ideas on how to make communities more inviting to buses, trains, pedestrians, and cyclists.
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So far, meager funding has kept the program from accomplishing much outside of a very few locations or from serving as an incentive strong enough to change the behavior of towns that are not already inclined to transit friendliness or station-area redevelopment."8 Transit Villages in Traditional Rail Towns The downtowns of most traditional railway towns in Northeast New Jersey have had similar fates. Over the past 30 years, the opening of indoor megamalls has slowly but steadily chipped away at the economic vitality of once vibrant commercial districts.
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merchant who owns a shop directly across from the Rahway train station, Mayor Jim Kennedy has doggedly sought, over his 13 consecutive years in office, to reinvigorate the town center, beginning with the downtown rail station. In an address to New Jersey's Housing, Finance, and Mortgage agency, Mayor Kennedy remarked: "Our plan was designed around NJ TRANSIT's investment of $18 million and a new train station; the station is a great asset that has brought us the ability to develop a unique central business district."9 Rahway's downtown plan calls for 1,400 housing units to be built within walking distance of the train depot.
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income. Many credit these partnerships to the mayor's "can-do" outlook and business acumen.
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A five-story parking structure is also being built next to the station in hopes of redeveloping the existing surface lot. Some observers, however, feel that Rahway's desire to attract park-andriders could backfire by making the downtown less transit- and pedestrianfriendly than it otherwise would be.
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Rationalizing Parking Policies in Traditional Rail Towns In the heated competition for shoppers, downtown merchants in traditional rail towns understandably want as much free and convenient parking as suburban malls. Generous parking supplies can also translate into park-and-riders who hang around and shop when they exit train stations in the afternoon.
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One of the first steps was to calm traffic and enhance pedestrian safety. With state aid, a former four-lane state highway piercing the downtown and directly serving the train station was narrowed to three lanes, sidewalks were widened, zebra-crossings and traffic signals were added, and intersections were bulbed-out to slow vehicular speeds.
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to assemble and hand over land parcels to developers. Low-interest loans secured for redevelopment sites have also been passed on to developers to entice private investment.
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(see Photo 11.3)
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residents take some form of public transit to work each day: most take New York Waterway ferries, with others taking nearby PATH commuter rail and Hudson-Bergen light-rail transit. Port Imperial is a classic example of residential self-selection: those with a lifestyle preference to live in a pedestrian-friendly urban setting and take transit to work choose residences near major terminuses -- in this case, ferry ports.
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Re-urbanization in Jersey City Not all rail-oriented development in the state has been predominately residential. In Jersey City, the state's second largest municipality (with a population of 228,000 in 2000)
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office and hotel additions and over three-quarters of housing units have congregated. There is little question that light-rail transit has been a powerful magnet in focusing Jersey City's past decade of central-city reinvestment and renewal.
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Surrounding Newport Centre Mall are seven Class A, 20-story (or more) office towers, many of which host office workers displaced from lower Manhattan by the World Trade Center tragedy.
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Transit Joint Development To date, there has been relatively little in the way of transit joint development in New Jersey, such as leasing air-rights above transit stations. This could change in coming years, however.
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are a convenient walk to a train station. As one realtor put it: In the New Jersey suburbs, putting the magic words ‘close to train' in ads generates more interest in properties .
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9 New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, "Rahway Mayor Touts Redevelopment Plan for Central Business District" (May 7, 2002)
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229 Chapter 12 Washington, D.C.: Model for the Nation The Washington Metro system is the first modern rapid transit system built since the Second World War to specifically incorporate a goal of shaping regional growth in addition to fighting congestion and improving transit. The emergence of TOD around dozens of Metrorail stations is widely hailed as a success by local supporters and observers from around the world.
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(see Map 12.1)
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231 PROJECT TYPE LAND USE Ballston AR, GL, SC, SO Mixed Commercial (office,retail, hotel) –Residential Bethesda Metro Center Elm-Reed Street AR, GL, SC, SO GL Mixed Commercial (Office, hotel, retail)
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McPherson Square GL Office, retail Metro Center Columbia Square May Department Stores I May Department Stores II GL SCF SCF Office, retail Retail Retail Minnesota Avenue S, SC, SO Office, retail New Carrollton Amtrak Ticketing/Waiting Room Parking Garage Joint Development Project GL GL Retail Parking facilities shared with Amtrak. Negotiations with selected developer were terminated.
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purchasing more land than was necessary to build a new transit facility. This was not a financial burden to WMATA since the federal government picked up the lion's share of the tab.
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intervention. Most of the sites are surface parking lots, which developers will need to replace, although the board is reviewing its policy to determine whether a one-for-one replacement will be required.
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Arlington County, Virginia: Three Decades of TOD Success Arlington County is arguably the nation's best TOD success story of the past 30 years. Located directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., Arlington County attracts many visitors to sights such as Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon.
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that Metrorail provided an unprecedented opportunity to shape future growth and proceeded to introduce various strategies -- targeted infrastructure improvements, incentive zoning, development proffers, permissive and as-of-right zoning -- to entice private investments around stations. After preparing countywide and station-area plans on desired land-use outcomes, density and setback configurations, and circulation systems, zoning classifications were changed, and developments that complied with these classifications could proceed unencumbered.
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Court House Station: Leading by Example The sector plan for Court House Station, which was adopted in 1981 and amended in 1993, designated the area as an urban governmental center with high-density residential and office uses. Court House Plaza, built in 1988, was selected as a focal point of the neighborhood.
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commitment to citizen participation in the planning process have allowed Arlington County to maintain an active portfolio of development activities along Metrorail corridors. County Plans One key tool used to promote TOD along Arlington County's Metrorail corridors was the preparation of a thoughtful, illustrative general land use plan (GLUP)
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lower-income ones, the special district permits higher densities to ensure that the affordable housing is preserved or replaced. The SAHPD policy was followed by the adoption of Housing Policy Principles in 1991.
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recommendations to the County Board. It often holds public hearings to solicit feedback and input from citizens about development in the County.
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corridors has increased from 5,700 to over 35,000 over the past 40 years. The RosslynBallston corridor has also emerged as one of Northern Virginia's primary retail addresses (see Text Box 12.2)
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242 Text Box 12.2 Retail at Metro: The Arlington Experience In Arlington County, the Rosslyn-Ballston transit corridor offers an example of a highly developed retail market with a distinct transit orientation. Roughly half of the County's 5.2 million square feet of retail space is located within this transit corridor.
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243 Retail at Metro: The Arlington Experience The project, fully leased at opening, features lifestyle and specialty retailers such as Pottery Barn, Barnes & Noble, Williams Sonoma, and Crate & Barrel, along with "uptown" eateries like Bertucci's and Ben & Jerry's. A 1,200space parking garage supports the project.
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244 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 1970- 1974 1975- 1979 1980- 1984 1985- 1989 1990- 1994 1995- 1999 G ro w th R at e Regional Employment Arlington County Metro Corridors Office Space Figure 12.2. Arlington Office Space and Regional Employment Growth Rates.
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rise, mixed-use development, notably Court House and Crystal City, also experienced appreciable ridership gains. As confirmed by time-of-day statistics, a benefit of balanced development has been balanced ridership.
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246 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Fairfax County Prince George's County Montgomery County City of Alexandria Arlington County District of Columbia Washington, D.C. Metro Areas Pe rc en ta ge o f A ve ra ge D ai ly R id er sh ip Peak Period Off Peak Figure 12.5.
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or less accomplished on Wilson Boulevard serving the Ballston area, where average daily traffic (ADT) has hovered in the 22,000 to 23,000 vehicle range during much of the past two decades.
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populate the County and are inclined toward good planning and good governance. It is no fluke that the fight against resistance to school integration in the 1950s in Virginia began in Arlington.
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Arlington County is not just a story of the past. More TOD possibilities lie ahead.
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have been largely bypassed by private investors for decades. Now, traffic gridlock, shifting demographics toward more childless households, and growing interest in urban living have increased the demand for housing in railaccessible, in-city neighborhoods.
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of another 572 units pending in the Columbia Heights Station area. U Street TOD One of the strongest markets for residential development and the cornerstone of the District's economic development plan is the U Street Corridor.
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252 Text Box 12.3 An exemplary model of the benefits of private-public collaboration is the Bethesda Row project in Bethesda's CBD. Bethesda Row is a large-scale, mixed-use redevelopment project on a site that covers seven contiguous city blocks and encompasses 13.5 acres of land.
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neighborhoods. Bethesda's CBD sector plan was amended in 1982 to ensure that the projects approved within the city's core maintained a high-quality design and complied with the community goals, including transit-oriented, compact development.
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a new civic building and public plaza, a residential complex, a hotel, and a sports club. This downtown development, three blocks from the Metrorail station, is the culmination of years of revitalization efforts by the County as well as private investments.
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was central to the deal. However, Tyson's spread-out form meant that it could require four to six stations, adding significant expense to the construction cost and delay to airport passengers (see Photo 12.2)
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Text Box 12.4 The Design Challenges of TOD While transit-oriented residences have become hot commodities in and around the nation's capital, they often pose special design challenges. Architect-designers with Dorksy Hodgson + Partners, a national architecture and planning firm with extensive experience in the Washington area, recently outlined these challenges in an article in the spring 2003 issue of Multifamily Trends, a publication of the Urban Land Institute.
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TODs and Real-Estate Market Performance Given that the Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area enjoys one of the nation's best modern-day rail networks and transit/land-use connections and given its relatively healthy economic standing, one would expect real estate in and around Metrorail stations to sell and lease for a premium.
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Using hedonic price models, researchers from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found a significant price elasticity of –0.69 for commercial-retail properties within 2,500 feet of Metrorail stations one year before the system opened (i.e., sales prices per square foot for retail parcels fell by 7% for every 10% increase in the distance to a station portal) .17 A 1983 article in American Demographic chronicled Metrorail's land-market benefits in the early years.
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come.23 In the words of one Washingtonarea developer interviewed for this study, "Today's smart money is around Metrorail stops." Conclusions and Lessons Because Washington's Metrorail was intended to influence regional development patterns, it offers some lessons on building TODs from the ground up. While TOD in the region is of a scale and scope that is much grander than elsewhere in the United States, when stripped to the basics, the lessons that the Washington (D.C.)
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plan is needed to be able to develop such accessible sites and to ensure that if replacement parking is required, it will not be a barrier to such development. WMATA's recent efforts to proactively seek community input into the joint development decision-making process should make parking-lot infill a more acceptable practice in coming years.
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12 Arlington County Economic Development, A Current Assessment of Arlington's Community Retail Base, Issue Paper No. 2 (August 2003)
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263 Chapter 13 TOD and Joint Development in the Sunbelt: Miami-Dade County Over the past half century, Florida has grown at a faster rate than any other state in the nation, from some 2.8 million residents in 1950 to nearly 16 million in 2000.1 As the nation's fourth most populous state, rapid-paced growth has heightened concerns about dwindling natural resources, mounting traffic congestion, and an overall declining quality of life. In recent years, Florida's largest metropolitan areas have been under increasing pressure to either restrict future growth or implement plans that emphasize compact forms of development oriented towards transit.
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standards might be. The only active policy in the Plan suggests the incorporation of easements for future transit projects into the Department of Transportation's right-of-way acquisition processes.
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sector has been most directly responsible for the presence of TOD in the county, local governments have not always been able to smoothly coordinate amongst themselves. Varying intra-county market conditions combined with preexisting land uses account for the relative success at some stations and lackluster performance at others.
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Metrorail, which opened in 1984, is a 21-mile, elevated rapid transit system that runs from the city of Hialeah Gardens, southeast through downtown Miami, and continues southwest into Kendall. Metrorail connects with the regional Tri-Rail commuter-rail system at the Tri-Rail station in north Miami (see Map 13.1)
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expended on administrative costs. All of the municipalities within Miami-Dade County will split the remaining 20% of the total surtax revenues on a pro rata basis according to population, with monies expected to go to local ancillary improvements like bikeways and traffic calming.
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property and leases. In effect, MDT continues to be responsible for the daily operations of existing public transit service, but OPTM will manage, develop, and implement all new projects and system expansions.
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269 Joint Development at South Dadeland Station The South Dadeland Station's mid-rise skyline is the result of a joint development quid pro quo in the purest sense. The property is in a prime location, situated off of the U.S.
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fast rules for developers to follow. A municipality may also seek judicial review of the County Commission's action, which can bring the project into a lengthy and expensive lawsuit.
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as comfortable sidewalks, safe streetcrossings, and inviting entryways create obstacles for pedestrians. This means that existing and planned projects are more "transit adjacent" than "transit oriented" in character (see Photo 13.2)
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273 Photo 13.2. TAD at Brickell Station.
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goals for the Overtown Station area were set out in a 1981 station-area profile: • Promote the orderly use of land; • Maximize the development of the area immediately to the west of the station; • Encourage the development of housing for mixed-income households; • Stress the preservation of historic buildings and sites, rehabilitation of existing housing, and redevelopment of blighted areas; • Create a climate conducive for private investment and provide opportunities for minorities to manage and own businesses; • Increase employment opportunities and upward job mobility for residents; • Encourage residents to continue living in Overtown by promoting home ownership and providing new housing for low- and moderateincome families; • Improve the delivery of human services and emphasize area security and a sense of community; and • Provide better transportation to employment and service centers.13 In the more than 20 years since these goals were established, few have been fully realized. It is not for lack of trying.
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advantage from a transit-planning or market perspective, the Overtown Station has, according to some, languished in obscurity. A further obstacle to revitalization has been a marked lack of coordination among the various agencies and organizations working in Overtown.
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Increased transit ridership will be a bonus, although the creation of new jobs, the opening of new shops, and a more attractive streetscape is what appeals most to local residents and merchants. Such positive changes can instill civic pride, investor confidence in the neighborhood, and a sense of security and well-being.
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observers think more the latter than the former, noting that the addition of apartment and condominium towers in the Brickell district has failed to increase transit ridership at the Brickell Station. This could, however, be due to the lack of pedestrian amenities in and around the station and, as is widely acknowledged, a poor interface between transit and land-use planning in the area.
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8 R Knack, "Miami Bets on Transit," Planning Magazine, Vol.
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279 Chapter 14 Chicago's Transit Villages: Back to the Future for Historic Commuter-Rail Towns Development is once again following Chicago's long-established commuterrail corridors as a growing list of communities are returning to their roots, pursuing TOD to revitalize downtowns that grew up around transit (see Map 14.1)
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280 Map 14.1. Growth of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.
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described, as are some of the tools that various agencies are using. Some of the region's significant TODs are then profiled.
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land use, therefore, poses a formidable challenge. Integrated regional planning took a big step forward, however, with the passage of an interagency agreement for Northeast Illinois in 2000 that clarified and built on earlier planning agreements.4 Prior to this agreement, determining who was in charge of even basic functions (e.g., local and regional population forecasts)
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needed. To achieve its policy goals, NIPC tries to achieve consensus among its constituents and disseminates information about successful programs and projects, including TODs.
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automobile access, buried utilities, and additional housing near the station. In both cases, recommendations are generally being followed.
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adding development and making parking more convenient, Metra continues to work in partnership with them to seek out creative parking solutions.13 In some older suburban downtowns, parking has been distributed into multiple decks not immediately adjacent to the station. In other places, shared parking has been implemented.
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286 component of the city's award-winning strategy to revitalize its historic downtown. The village has created a virtually new town center that includes a new Metra station, a performing arts center, high-density housing, commercial uses, and public parking decks (see Photo 14.1)
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287 Currently in its "maturation" stage, the village is increasingly relying on the redevelopment of underutilized commercial, manufacturing, and residential parcels close to the Metra station. A recent survey suggests that 17% of downtown residents now use Metra as their primary mode of commuting (compared with 7% for all of Arlington Heights)
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the following: new zoning that permits mixed uses and higher densities downtown, reduced parking requirements near the rail station, and the establishment of two TIF districts. The zoning revisions require first-floor retail uses in mixed-use buildings and allow buildings up to 140 feet in height.
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square feet of retail and office space, and 816 parking spaces in an adjacent public garage. The loft units, priced below other downtown units, sold quickly.
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(4) Continuity and dedication among staff to execute the plan.
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redevelopment sites in proximity to the rail line, established a "transitionary" zoning district to allow a gradual conversion to higher uses, and created a multifamily zone to increase downtown densities. In addition, the Plan established a TIF district, collecting the tax increment on both real-estate and sales taxes, to promote redevelopment throughout the core.
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relationship with its Metra station and, today, is home to thriving shops, fulltime residents, and an active night life. Downtown Elmhurst has not always been a thriving district.
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above what is provided for in existing station-area plans (see Figure 14.1)
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compete in a changing marketplace. Those policy aspirations are complemented by punishing levels of traffic congestion that are prompting more commuters to choose housing near rail stations.
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from cities in the corridors, which have generally taken an active interest in maximizing TOD opportunities (and would pay for new stations)
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In other communities, density in general remains a divisive issue. The mid-rise densities in Arlington Heights are not viewed favorably by some communities considering TOD, prompting RTA and other agencies to focus discussions more on design possibilities than on density per se.
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Notes 1 Other major transit providers in the Chicago region are the CTA, which provides regional heavy-rail and bus service, and Pace, which provides suburban bus service. 2 Campaign for Sensible Growth, Growing Sensibly, brochure (Chicago: n.
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is $272,000. The village has about 4,000 owner-occupied units and 1,000 rental units.
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299 Chapter 15 Dallas: Using TOD to Create Place and Value in a Sprawling Metroplex Viewed from 37,000 feet, the Dallas Metroplex (i.e., region) would not appear to be a strong candidate for TOD.
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DART does not have a formal TOD program (named as such) , but promotes transit-supportive growth via economic development activities and programs.
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the back one-third of the public plaza that will be part of the rail station. At the 8th and Corinth Station, DART is in the process of selling surplus parking to an affordable-housing developer, pending board approval.
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development next to transit at some stations. A very different picture emerges in the suburban communities along the DART extensions where market forces have been complemented by public-sector leadership, investment, and supportive policies.
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Today, the bottom level of the refurbished structure has 45,000 square feet of retail space (e.g., the Gap and Urban Outfitters) and is topped by four stories of new construction to accommodate 200,000 square feet of apartments.
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with light-rail and bus service. Finally, a brand-name boutique hotel is also planned for the site, west of the film center and immediately east of the Central Expressway.
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construction of the developer-financed bridge, workers had to take care to cover and protect overhead wires and could only work in 3-hour shifts so as not to disrupt light-rail service. From the bridge, elevators and escalators carry passengers to the depressed passengerloading platform.
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sidewalks, an Art Walk, landscaping, pedestrian lighting, bike lanes, park benches, and bricked walkways. The city of Dallas has also contributed $500,000 through a Cedars TIF district for streetscape improvements and awarded tax abatements for the Gilley's development.
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Development Center, the city has been committed to its downtown, which has historic and symbolic significance, for decades. During the past 40 years, Plano has witnessed explosive growth.
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The city assembled the entire site and in 1998 issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) for developers.
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district, and Haggard Park. The project features three- and four-story brick buildings with zero setbacks and designs reminiscent of 19th-century mercantile structures.
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market directly to DART users by handing out coffee and doughnuts on the platform, and project advertisements include a DART "banner." Text Box 15.1 outlines Shaw's philosophy on TOD design. The city is not done rebuilding its downtown.
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Station, The Cedars, and downtown Plano, it is not presently served by light-rail transit, although civic leaders hope this will one day change. Currently, it represents a bus-based TOD with the possibility of transforming into a rail-served one.
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150 restaurants, and the town has retained its regional status as a thriving entertainment/leisure destination. Addison Circle is a dense, mixed-use neighborhood with a strong residential presence that closely adheres to the principles of New Urbanism.16 Planning for the town center began in 1991, when the town's updated comprehensive plan proposed a special mixed-use, residential district.
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buildings are generally four to eight stories with interior courtyards and high-quality brick and stone finishes.18 A strong emphasis on landscaping, streetscape improvements, pocket parks, and other aesthetics "softens" perceived residential density. Also, most residential buildings contain street-level retail, cafes, restaurants, galleries, and/or offices.19 Units range from onebedroom apartments to penthouse lofts and townhomes, and monthly rents range from $700 to $2,600.
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the heart of the region's "Telecom Corridor," which generally parallels the Central Expressway. The corridor is characterized by major office, commercial/retail, and light industrial land uses in close proximity to the highway, while low-density housing dominates the remainder of the corridor.21 With over 600 high-tech and telecommunications firms, more than 80,000 employees work in Richardson.
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consulting with Nortel, a major employer planning to expand its facilities, the city strategically approached DART to move the station north, next to a large vacant parcel under single ownership. Soon afterwards, the city assembled what it refers to as a "dream team," composed of representatives from DART, Nortel, and the Galatyn Park Corporation (the developer)
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expected to spark upwards of $300 million in private investment at Galatyn Park, and the city will have invested some $75 million. In the words of a city staff member, the city is "now creating a new string of nodes with a new type of development that will identify our community in the future; this is a way to re-identify ourselves." Another staff member has said, "We are trying to create special areas, special places for where folks want to be." That said, the city's approach has been a tempered one, and it acknowledges that it is charting new ground in a place with no high densities, mixed uses, or TOD.
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office investment and transactions near DART are increasing and that DART's importance is likely to grow.32 As office competition in the far suburbs has intensified, investors are now looking for properties closer to popular DART lines, where occupancies and rents have been higher. Retail uses in TODs, however, are likely to take longer to lease up and add a truly urban ambience to mixed-use projects.
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Dillard in Richardson. So far in Dallas, unlike other communities, TOD has been the exclusive domain of major developers.
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10 For a detailed account of Plano's history and redevelopment strategy, refer to an unpublished white paper, "Downtown Plano: Creating a Transit Village," by F Turner, Plano Assistant Village Manager, May 2003.
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Area Rapid Transit (Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Center for Economic Development and Research, January 2003)
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321 Chapter 16 TOD in the Mountain West: Colorado Introduction Colorado is the third fastest growing state in the United States, with population increasing twice as fast as the nation as a whole over the past decade. Rapid growth has been accompanied by prosperity; however, recently it has also become synonymous with traffic congestion, air pollution, and sprawl.
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big-city Denver and its environs, the medium-sized city of Boulder, and the semi-rural Roaring Fork Valley. Transit-Oriented Redevelopment in Metropolitan Denver Against a backdrop of escalating congestion and sprawl, jurisdictions throughout the Denver area are turning to TOD as a tool for managing growth.
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economic development tool, providing natural settings for vibrant, pedestrianfriendly districts, such as those found throughout the region a century ago. Metro Denver's Transportation Eras The Transportation Hub of the Rockies.
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persuaded voters to pass a bond measure to pay for the construction of the Denver Pacific Railroad. Completed in 1870, this railway breathed new life into the city by connecting it to the nation's rail network.
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considers the build-out potential of local zoning ordinances. In 2000, the region contained approximately 2.4 million people living in an urbanized area of approximately 500 square miles.
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early signs of its success is the recent adoption of two changes to the zoning ordinance: one change downzones established residential neighborhoods to preserve historic character, and the other change creates a TMU-30 zone, which substantially increases allowable densities along rail transit corridors.
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Agency (DURA)
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the bus-served Mall is 60,000, which accounts for 21% of the region's transit trips, compared with 13% for the entire light-rail system.15 Regional bus transfer stations at both ends of the Mall serve as gateways to downtown. These stations were RTD's first joint development projects and continue to bring in a steady stream of ground-lease revenue.
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16 Market Square Millennium Financial Center 1899 Wynkoop (A)
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upgraded (see Photo 16.2)
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Dimmer, the president of the Historic Downtown Association, believes businesses are relocating to Olde Town because the area is perceived as up and coming. She attributes this in part to an expectation that TOD will help Olde Town in a way that the adjacent big-box development never did.
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area, lies a 29-acre site known as the Water Tower District. The site, formerly occupied by an excavating company and 200 single- and multifamily units, is slated for reuse as a TOD.
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term the investment will pay off by bringing additional residents to the area, growing the tax base, and encouraging the extension of rail service to the area. Ridge Home Property.
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it generated approximately half of Englewood's sales-tax revenue.21 The mall's fortunes began to decline during the 1980s, as competing properties entered the marketplace. The last effort to renovate and reposition the mall was in 1984; this proved to be too little, too late, and sales dropped precipitously during the 1990s: from $54 per square foot at the start of the decade to $8 per square foot by 1995.22 Planning Process.
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Outcomes. As of June 2002, CityCenter was performing quite favorably across all market segments.
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TOD. A group of experts from real estate, finance, banking, urban design, and transportation was formed to study the site, assess its potential for TOD, and offer suggestions for implementation.
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7 million square feet of residential, office, hotel, entertainment, civic, and retail space. Cherokee has received support from the members of the Denver TOD Coalition.
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large-scale TOD projects along the T-REX line, build out is expected to occur over the course of years, most likely by around 2015. Metropolitan Denver's Experience in Summary In greater Denver, there is a growing understanding of TOD on the part of public and private stakeholders.
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as a result of broader land-use and transportation policies and a favorable real-estate market, this is about to change. The city is currently partnering with RTD to create an intermodal transit center, accommodating current bus and future commuter-rail and BRT services.
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development have been selling for between $210 and $260 per square foot. As a comparison, the neighborhood average asking price for residential units in the popular Ballpark neighborhood in downtown Denver was $257 per square foot as of January 2003.31 Residential units at the Steel Yards development have been selling for between $260 and $335 per square foot.
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planning area. Up to 115,000 jobs are projected in the future, compared with 5,800 additional housing units, based on current zoning (see http://www.ci.
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designed to be transit-friendly, its operation is automobile-oriented. This wrinkle points to the risks of using ad hoc requirements imposed through development review to "force" more transit-friendly land uses, particularly in the absence of an area plan to provide design guidelines.
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commuting into the city than leaving to work elsewhere. At present, the city has a jobs-to-housing ratio of 0.96 to 1, compared to a ratio of 0.57 to 1 for the region as a whole.36 Officials have drawn a direct link between this worsening jobs-housing imbalance and increases in traffic impacts, noting that those who "in-commute" make longer trips than Boulder residents and are more likely to arrive in a singleoccupancy vehicle.
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the timing, orientation, and mix of uses around a new intermodal transit center. As a result of transportation studies to evaluate mobility, the city identified a need for an intermodal transit center to integrate regional and local buses as well as future commuter-rail and BRT connections along U.S.
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BRT service to the area. As a result, the city has found a flexible agency, ultimately willing to back away from plans to develop another park-and-ride facility on U.S.
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transit to the region's future. Beginning as a local bus service in Aspen and Pitkin County, the Roaring Fork Transit Agency grew "down valley" as a means of bringing workers to jobs in Aspen and Snowmass.
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RFTA recently completed a corridor investment study exploring long-range transportation alternatives in the Valley. Options include BRT, light rail, and commuter rail.
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its master plan calling for TOD planning principles to be utilized in the design and layout of areas surrounding transit stations.43 It also made modifications that were informed by expectations about future transit service to its Future Land Use Map.44 These policies are reflected in a recently adopted PUD for the Willits Town Center, which features a commercial core that uses a small-block gridded street pattern and includes a transit center for use by RFTA's regional buses. Even before recent discussions about BRT and rail transit, Basalt had begun planning for TOD.
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modes of transportation is shared by the city of Aspen. Both jurisdictions, along with Pitkin County, have adopted a policy goal of "limiting vehicles in 2015 to levels at or below those of 1994."47 As resort communities, both are aware that their economic well-being is closely tied to an efficient and uncongested transportation system, which not only delivers visitors to their destinations, but also helps to secure those areas as vibrant, pedestrianfriendly places.
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From page 356... ...
for land-use planning cooperation around the issue of TOD. Conclusions and Lessons In Colorado, TOD is occurring across a broad array of landscapes.
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test bed for the viability of TOD in a non-urban setting. Notes 1 Pew Center for Civic Journalism, Straight Talk from Americans (2000)
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18 Lower office rents at the Millennium Financial Center reflect a discount given to a single large user, who rents three floors of the building for $24.75 per square foot. Otherwise, office rents in the project average $27.50 per square foot.
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through the Three Mile Planning Area. This belief drives many elements of the Future Land Use Map, including the location of the potential transit stations, limits of the urban growth and urban services area boundaries, and the development pattern around the potential transit station area" (p.
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355 Chapter 17 Portland's TODs: Building Community on a Regional Scale The Portland region has the most aggressive TOD program in the United States. In Portland, TOD is linked to many goals and has been broadly implemented.
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regional transit agency, and adopted by local governments before the Eastside and Westside light-rail lines opened for service. Minimum densities, parking maximums, design requirements and prohibition of automobile-oriented uses (through interim zoning overlays)
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TOD. The region's vaunted growth management strategy is built around transit.
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358 Table 17.1. Portland TOD Toolbox Snapshot TOOL BRIEF DESCRIPTION Statewide Tools Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)
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and rationale behind Portland's growing rail network changed. Some milestones include the following: • TOD was a novelty when Portland's Eastside light-rail line was designed in the mid-1970s.
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Reflecting the role of TOD as a fundamental city-shaping tool in the Portland region, TOD planning and implementation is today being pursued at multiple levels. Agencies actively working on TOD include the state of Oregon's Community Solutions Team, TriMet, Metro (the regional government)
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TOD along the freeway section of light rail in the city of Portland. This section of the Eastside MAX parallels the freeway for 4.5 miles and was never given much TOD consideration.
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40% of the constructed units be affordable, and the LAC proposal reserved 75% of the project's 288 rental units for residents making less than the area's median income. As the final development program began to take shape, market-driven cost cutting and engineering considerations were threatening to reduce some of the transitsupportive elements of the project (e.g., mix of housing types and high-quality pedestrian connections)
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363 Metro TOD Implementation Program To help simulate the construction of transit villages, Portland's regional government, Metro, operates the innovative TOD Implementation Program using federal transportation funds. The TOD Program operates through a series of cooperative agreements between Metro and local jurisdictions, and it utilizes development agreements with private developers.
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From page 369... ...
respondents had an annual household income of $25,000 or less) , transit use has still increased significantly among new residents of Center Commons.
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From page 370... ...
buyers, but costs escalated rapidly because of a changing regulatory environment (i.e., building code changes; separate design reviews by the city, PDC, and the state; slow final permitting; construction delays; and construction cost overruns)
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From page 371... ...
Located 23 minutes from downtown Portland on light rail, The Round is a pioneering project in a city with no precedent for mixed-use infill development (see Photo 17.2)
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garage, a 50,000-square-foot theater center, and a 100-room hotel. The entire project was initially valued at $50 million, and the first phase was expected to open in the fall of 1998.
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From page 373... ...
California, completed construction of the buildings, but also changed the overall development program to create more intensity around the station. The new developer is getting no subsidies from the city.
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From page 374... ...
moving forward. Even while the regional development market is weak, the market for TOD in Portland is now established and strong, benefiting The Round and other planned TOD projects.
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From page 375... ...
370 Table 17.3. Snapshot of Pearl District Development Along Portland Streetcar Line24 Project Name Value (000's )
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From page 376... ...
planning and build out of the Pearl District as a whole is discussed. Readers should refer to other sources for detailed descriptions of individual projects within the Pearl District.22 Historically, the Pearl District was marshland along the Willamette River, north of an emerging downtown Portland.
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In the early 1990s, private citizens and landowners in the area convened to craft a vision statement for the River District. (At the time, the Pearl District was not officially recognized as such and rather was part of a large River District, which generally shared the same boundaries, except that it extended further east to the Willamette river.)
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2. Parks: HSP agreed to donate 1.5 acres of land for new parks in exchange for the city's commitment to build them.
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between Northwest Portland and downtown. It's friendly, easy, and not super fast, but I don't think it was intended to be.
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From page 380... ...
Solheim completed several historic loft renovations (e.g., the Chown Pella Lofts) and established the market for urban living that other developers later built on.
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Apartment rents generally range from $800 to $2,000 per month. In keeping with the city's affordablehousing target, three projects serve lowand very-low-income households (seniors and others)
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From page 382... ...
from other shopping districts. Others argue that the liberal provision of ground floors pushes down rents and allows a more interesting and diverse set of local retailers to gain a market foothold.
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From page 383... ...
Portland's TODs seem to be working as well as or better than expected. To date, Portland has experienced two major phases of TOD implementation.
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sustained commitment to TOD. While Portland's ability to create innovative planning regulations seemingly knows no bounds, planning does not create realestate demand.
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8 TriMet, "1-205 Segment Request for Proposal -- Step 1" (Portland, Oregon: July 2003)
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From page 386... ...
facilitate the transition between the industrial past and a "wide-open" future. 26 HSP had purchased the yards in the early 1990s.
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383 Chapter 18 The San Francisco Bay Area: The Challenge of Creating a Transit-Oriented Metropolis Exurban sprawl, unaffordable housing, ever-worsening traffic congestion, and environmental degradation are just a few of the reasons that TOD is being actively embraced in the San Francisco Bay Area. Private interests, not-for-profits, and public agencies have all invested time and money in pursuing TOD projects.
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From page 388... ...
regional agencies have limited and fragmented power. This lack of regional control significantly impedes the planning and implementation of TODs.
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From page 389... ...
methodology may give more attention and funding to TODs. MTC's Transportation for Livable Communities Program In 1970, the California State Legislature separated the responsibility of regional transportation planning from ABAG and created the MTC.
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From page 390... ...
2002 -- 65% of which were affordable. Programs like HIP are important, if not the only, funding sources for station-area housing construction; however, while they are very much welcomed by local governments, private developers are more lukewarm in their assessment.
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From page 391... ...
invest in TODs only if the opportunity is presented to them, and the private sector shows a development interest in station sites. These and most other Bay Area CMAs serve as facilitators or mediators in the TOD planning process.
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From page 392... ...
investments, the regional coordination doesn't happen." Franklin Street Project In 1999, when the San Mateo County TOD Incentive Program was approved, the first project to be awarded funding was the Franklin Street mixed-use development in Redwood City (see Photo 18.1)
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389 Map 18.1. Bay Area Transit Agencies.
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From page 394... ...
governments to initiate zoning changes around stations and to attracting private developers. Two major transit agencies in the Bay Area, VTA and BART, have been most active in TOD to date.
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From page 395... ...
developers still believing that smart money lies in parcels within an easy walk of VTA light-rail stops. Ohlone Chynoweth: VTA's Proactive Joint Development Program In 1998, VTA created an in-house joint development program principally to tap the development potential of underutilized park-and-ride lots.
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Oriented Development Guidelines. The primary goal of the guidelines in this document is to promote "vibrant and livable station areas" and "the use of BART as a primary means of transportation."6 The guidelines have few regulations or standards for development.
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From page 397... ...
parking standards should be reduced, and they ignore the fact that the high cost of providing parking is one of the major barriers to TOD at BART stations. As discussed in the next section, current BART policy of one-to-one parking ratio replacement drastically increases the cost for a developer to build on existing BART parking lots, which are prime locations for TODs.
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policy. BART's 1984 "Station Area Development and Implementation Policy" requires that TOD projects provide a competitive rate of return for the value of agency-owned land.
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San Francisco BART's Interagency Initiatives Public-agency working groups and coordinating committees have been formed at nearly half of all BART stations, providing forums for local governments, transit agencies, nonprofits, and other civic-minded groups to move TOD projects forward: ➢ Pittsburg/Bay Point: A Technical Working Group was created among three entities -- BART, Contra Costa County, and the city of Pittsburg -- to prepare a TOD-oriented Specific Plan for the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station. Each entity contributed funds for this effort.
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community center, library, housing, and new structured parking was proposed. BART accepted the idea and decided to work with the community to construct their vision.
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in ways that first maximize transit ridership and then balance transit-oriented development goals with community desires."15 BART is committed to seeing that communities shape the environment that takes form around the stations that directly serve them. Local Government Initiatives In addition to regional bodies and transit agencies, a number of municipalities and county redevelopment agencies throughout the Bay Area have been active over the past two decades in seeking to leverage development around rail stations.
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From page 402... ...
area to entice private investment: the preparation of a specific plan, TIF to pay for streetscape improvements, road widenings, and the undergrounding of utilities, mixed-use zoning, and the assembly and packaging of land into developable parcels. With over 2,000 housing units and several million square feet of commercial development within walking distance of the Pleasant Hill Station, these efforts have largely paid off.
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developers did not follow up on their ends of the deal. While much of the city of San Francisco is transit-oriented, a continuing affordable-housing crisis, coupled with the elimination of freeways in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, has prompted city officials to actively seek out TOD redevelopment opportunities in recent years.
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Inner-City TOD: The Transbay Terminal Redevelopment Project Not all Bay Area TOD activities are in the suburbs, nor are all spearheaded by BART and VTA. In downtown San Francisco, an interagency effort is underway to build a new Transbay Terminal on a 66-acre site created by the removal of an old freeway.
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entities adds complexity to the projects and can discourage developers from pursuing projects. According to the recently released Caltrans statewide TOD study, the Bay Area's development community is conflicted about the role of government in TOD, calling for "less government" red tape in one breath and "more government" financial assistance and risk-taking in the other.22 In the minds of most developers, local governments, transit agencies, and regional planning organizations can both impede and facilitate the TOD planning and implementation process.
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From page 406... ...
process. For any given TOD project, a developer may end up having to work with local governments (city and/or county)
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From page 407... ...
and the state is responsible for allocating credits to low-income housing developers. The state of California added its own criteria to the federal requirements for affordable-housing plans and created a scoring system to evaluate potential projects.
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From page 408... ...
Program, and housing for persons with disabilities can be funded through the HUD Section 811 Program. These grants provide construction funds and also rental assistance for residents.
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405 © Institute for Location Efficiency Another financing mechanism for TOD housing in the San Francisco Bay Area is the availability of Location Efficient Mortgages (LEMs)
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sprawl. The Greenbelt Alliance views TOD as a critical component of smart growth, along with affordable housing, mixed uses, and flexible parking standards.
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reach out to financial institutions to encourage diverse housing types and mixed-use investments at transit-supportive densities within urban areas, near transit, which reuse underutilized or deteriorated areas; .
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station-area planning and decisionmaking process. While development is being drawn to private parcels that surround Bay Area rail stations, building communities on agency-owned land, particularly strategically located surface parking lots, has been advanced more slowly.
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numerous occasions in the Bay Area, but it has never been able to garner popular support because the political constituency for consolidating powers remains narrow. Most observers concede that regional governance is a pipedream and thus are resigned to something more modest in scope.
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and California Department of Transportation, 2004)
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From page 415... ...
411 Chapter 19 Southern California: From TODs to a Region of Villages TOD experiences in Southern California have been well documented.1 Perhaps it is because of the challenges of building a transit-friendly landscape in a region of crisscrossing freeways, where the automobile culture is firmly entrenched, that so much research has focused on Southern California. On the other hand, perhaps it is because Los Angeles's genesis owes much to the Red Car system and interurban rail lines of a century ago that interest in modern-day TODs runs high.
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From page 416... ...
is rated as the "nation's best multifamily market due to development constraints (Proposition 13 tax/spend limits) and investors' flight to quality."3 Increasingly, transit stops are being viewed as natural habitats for targeting affordable-housing production.
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From page 417... ...
Line in 1997 sparked the development of several TODs: Hazard Center, Rio Vista West, and Fenton Market. Similarly, along the Los Angeles Red Line, several notable projects (Hollywood/Highland, Hollywood/Vine)
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regional planning organization, has helped foster TOD over the past decade or so. Regional planners are increasingly looking to TOD to transform greater San Diego from a spread-out, automobileoriented setting to a more compact, mixed-use, transit-supportive built form.
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From page 419... ...
design manual to allow narrower street widths in transit-served neighborhoods. In Chula Vista, new development proposals are reviewed against a Design Element Checklist that, among other things, promotes orientation to transit, bicycles, and pedestrians over orientation to automobiles.
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From page 420... ...
The department strives to exploit development opportunities around rail stations both to generate operating revenues and build a ridership base. The city of Los Angeles promotes TOD mainly by preparing specific plans for station areas.
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417 MTA's Joint Development Implementation Procedures A Project Proposals Initiation / Solicitation: MTA periodically conducts market feasibility studies of agency-owned properties at and near transit stations.
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Alexenian, previous planning initiatives suffered because local communities were not involved in the planning process from the beginning. Citizens often felt excluded from the decisionmaking process and feared the planners were trying to impose changes upon their community.
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From page 423... ...
things in short supply given recent budget troubles. While the MTA has been a helpful partner in the past, staff and budget cuts in its own Department of Joint Development have limited its role in outreach.
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From page 424... ...
is even the case with vertically mixed projects (e.g., ground-floor retail and upper-level lofts and apartments) within easy walk of a rail station.
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From page 425... ...
podium, tuck-under, or below-grade parking. In unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County along the Blue Line, the county's RPD has encountered similar obstacles.
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From page 426... ...
employed to leverage TOD. One is a partnership between private lenders and MetroLink/Southern California Regional Rail Authority that offers incentives for homebuyers to purchase transit-oriented housing.
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From page 427... ...
the Hollywood/Highland project be spent in close proximity to the rail stop. The city is currently in the process of expanding this requirement to all future CRA projects.
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1980s and early 1990s. Nine projects were completed during this period (see Table 19.1 and Map 19.3)
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From page 429... ...
Project Project Description Year Completed Transit Services / Ridership Location Funding Prior Land Use Joint Development 1. MTS / James R
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426 1. MTS / James R
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Blue Line extension to Mission Valley was announced, the family seized the opportunity and began proposing several large-scale, mixed-use, master-planned projects for parcels strategically sited near planned rail stops. Most recently, the Hazard family built a 136,000square-foot shopping center across from the Blue Line's Hazard Center Station (see Photos 19.2 and 19.3)
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10. Hazard Center Mission Valley Center 13.
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From page 433... ...
the Hazard Center site, a "natural" for spawning San Diego's newest generation of TODs. City Heights Urban Village Before it was ripe for urban redevelopment, City Heights (see Map 19.3)
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From page 434... ...
TOD components -- such as mixed land uses and pedestrian-friendly designs -- have been embedded in most joint development projects. Los Angeles's experiences underscore the importance of targeting joint development projects in areas with strong local real-estate fundamentals.
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From page 435... ...
431 Map 19.4. Joint Development and Transit-Oriented Development Projects in Los Angeles County.
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bus signal priority, simple route layouts, less frequent stops than typical bus service, and level boarding and alighting. BRT components generally improve services in terms of travel time, wait time, reliability, and comfort.
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From page 437... ...
Pasadena's Transit-Oriented Redevelopment Pasadena's Del Mar Station with Joint Development Project Under Construction While other cities struggle over how to get the TOD ball rolling, Pasadena is one of those rare and intriguing examples of a place where TOD and joint development projects just seem to happen on their own. And Pasadena has only just recently begun to receive rail service from the just completed Gold LRT Line.
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From page 438... ...
developers. Finally, there is a lack of vacant, developable land around most of the bus stops of the Ventura and Whittier/Wilshire Metro Rapid BRT routes.
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From page 439... ...
several nearby property owners who have expressed interest in building retail facilities on MTA properties. San Diego's TOD Tools Because of the healthy level of TOD activities in the San Diego region over the past few decades, there is an established track record regarding which tools have been most effective in leveraging development around transit.
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From page 440... ...
on San Diego planners' perceptions of the impacts of San Diego's TOD projects. City staff from San Diego and La Mesa, with firsthand experience with TOD projects in their respective communities, were asked to rate the impacts of TOD on various outcomes using a 1-to-7 Likert scale.
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From page 441... ...
Willow Street Station, joint development brings MTA $515,000 in rent credits annually. Since the developer funded the MTA parking facility to amortize the loan, the rent credit is discounted to $51,000 until the loan is paid.
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From page 442... ...
MTA's Benefit-Assessment Program The ability to conceive, plan, and implement innovative TOD-supportive programs is a key theme found in public agencies that have been successful at encouraging TOD in their jurisdictions. Over the past decade, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
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From page 443... ...
MTA's Benefit Assessment Program However, when federal funds began to flow again for rail construction projects, the political imperative for benefit assessment programs disappeared. Based strictly on a financial analysis, MTA feels that benefit assessment districts do not generate enough revenues to justify expansion of the program -- particularly in less dense areas outside of downtown Los Angeles, where fewer businesses mean lower revenues.
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From page 444... ...
of developable land within city boundaries are running out. To date, Southern California has been a leader on the TOD front in many respects.
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From page 445... ...
and Design Strategies for the South Bay Cities (July 2000)
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Key Terms
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information on Chapter Skim is available.