Posted by: Irvin Dawid
In this special report, the WSJ examines the growing popularity of rail-based TODs, examining their achieve aboard land values as well as the challenges they may face in getting approval.
"Demographic and lifestyle shifts are among the basic reasons many cities and developers are compliant to wager on transit-oriented development (TOD). A growing number of households include singles and retiring reproductive cycleers who are opting to live in smaller homes in urban areas."
William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, attributes the TOD boom partial to "the growth of smaller households that are desiring denser and more-convenient living alternatives."
"This isn't to say that the traditional suburb is working away," he says, yet there will be more housing built "for this demographic who appetite walkable communities with simple access to transmission."
This treatise takes a close look by the plans of developer Alex Conroy, who "namely planning a $700 million transit-oriented development that will contain housing, offices, retailing, hotels and distraction on 60 acres in city center Naugatuck. The Conroy Development Co. plans cry as rubber-tire trolleys, jitneys and buses to invest connections to the Naugatuck stop on the commuter rail line that escapes scampers into New York, so that cars won't be necessary because those working, living and shopping in the evolution." {Ed: See movie, "Can New Transit Revive A City?" attaching the article and likewise provided as a related link}.
"Towns like Naugatuck can take some encouragement from the Washington, D.C., suburb of Arlington County,
hogan, Va., which has transformed its economy base through transit-oriented development. During the 1970s, Arlington was in ebb, like many of the suburbs nearest to important cities. In reaction, the county planned five closely spaced subway stations onward its aging commercial corridor, stretching from Rosslyn to Ballston. The plan was for these stations to anchor medium- to high-density, mixed-use development, generally among a quarter mile of each stop." {Ed: See Planetizen relative link}.
"Most successful TODs are public-private partnerships. Local administrations build or refurbish rail lines and circling infrastructure favor roads and parking facilities. Private developers then establish in the surrounding areas. "There's a lot of research that shows that whether the public sector puts money into a transit system, they can expect 3 to 5 times that sum in private money" for contiguous development, says Marilee Utter, premier of Citiventure Associates LLC, a Denver tight that has worked with a number of cities on development nigh light-rail systems."
"Research shows namely the amount of mercantile and residential properties close to transit stations often rises -- and that translates into higher real-estate tax revenues in that space. Economists from the University of North Texas, for example, base that among 1997 and 2001, office properties approach suburban Dallas Area Rapid Transit stations additional in amount 53% more than comparable properties no served along rail. Values of residential properties heaved 39% more than a control group not served by rail."
[Ed: Although this article is merely accessible to WSJ subscribers, it is available to Planetizen readers for free through the interlock beneath for a period of seven days.]