The Case for a Dense Core
Steve Belmont, AIA:

Transit, Location Efficiency, and Transit-Oriented Development
Hank Dittmar:

Financing Mixed Use Progressive Development
Chris Leinberger:

Houston, we have an opportunity
Dr. Arthur C. Nelson, ASCE, FAICP

Developers' Panel

Public Policy Panel

Entire report - pdf - 2 meg

Presentations
Steve Belmont- 14 meg
Hank Dittmar- 19 meg
Chris Leinberger- 18 meg
Arthur Nelson - 8 meg
Jeff Taebel- 3 meg
John Jacob- 3.5 meg
David Crossley- 9 meg

Hank Dittmar: Transit, Location Efficiency, and Transit-Oriented Development

Hank Dittmar is the president of the Center for Transit-Oriented Design and co-author of "The New Transit Town." He is also one of the founders of Reconnecting America, which expanded the mission and work of The Great American Station Foundation, a group that revitalized historic rail stations to improve rail access and intermodal connections and stimulate community development. He was also the former executive director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the nation's leading advocate for transportation policy reform. Dittmar discussed how cities around the country have learned to maximize development opportunities associated with mass transit stations.

Changing demographics provide sustainable opportunities
The fact that America’s demographics are changing could mean all the difference to building more sustainable communities, said Dittmar. Married couples with kids are no longer dominant in America. The “Empty-Nesters” and the single-person households are on the rise and are both looking for close-in, convenient living rather than far-away, large lot, suburban school settings.
Dittmar said the opportunity for sustainable living by mixing transit and communities is already there, that supply just needs to be allowed to meet demand. He said cities have plenty of openings to capture transit riders when they move into a new area as one-half of Americans move every five years. “There is a market for 14 million households within half a mile of a station by 2025, 8 million of them new” he continued. “Allowing this market demand to be met can improve housing affordability, reduce auto travel, and obviate need for greenfield development.”

Transit boom
There is evidence of growing demand for transit, Dittmar said. Transit is booming in America with new rail starts, extensions, and busways in process in 37 of the top 40 metro areas, he said. Those metro areas that are the most successful with transit, he said, compete well with the auto and focus on five core factors:

1. Frequency
2. Reliability
3. Speed
4. Convenience
5. Ease of use

He said the above “are the things we think the car provides us” yet the mobility level of service by car has continued to decline in metro areas with more and more road congestion. True competition with the car, Dittmar continues, will mean getting transit out of the auto environment so that it doesn’t mix among the same congestion cars face on roadways. Finally, Dittmar states that the fight between rail versus bus is wasted energy: both rail and bus are useful depending upon the setting.

Transit Oriented Development
Integrating the changing communities and transit could be achieved in a sustainable manner with a type of development called “transit oriented development” (TOD). TOD is based on building higher-density communities around rail and bus stations to maximize efficiency of transportation and land use. He said that such development would have several characteristics:
• Walkable
• Mixed use
• Location efficient
• Expanded mobility, shopping, and housing choices
• Financial return and value recapture
• Balance between place and node (description)
• Great place-making that celebrates walking
TOD: The Arlington County Case

Dittmar cited Arlington County, Virginia, as an area that exhibits TOD benefits. Arlington County used their section of the DC rail transit system as a catalyst for redevelopment of their declining suburb by concentrating density and promoting mixed-use at five closely spaced stations. This strategy was partly designed to save the existing single family dwelling neighborhoods and focus new development around the stations. Now, 33 percent of the County’s real estate tax revenue comes from the 8 percent of its land near transit, resulting in the lowest property tax of any major jurisdiction in Northern Virginia. The area saw 50 percent growth in transit ridership, with 73 percent of patrons traveling to and from stations not by car, but by foot, thereby eliminating need for dedicated station parking.

For more information about Hank Dittmar and Transit Oriented Development, visit Reconnecting America http://www.reconnectingamerica.org and Congress for the New Urbanism. http://www.cnu.org