Turns out that today is going to be sustainable development day on the It's Our Money blog.
Atrios weighs in:
...hopefully increased demand for amenities like mass transit might lead to some minor land use changes around existing transit corridors (lowered parking requirements, increased residential density). The changes really are quite minor in some sense, and despite NIMBY fears they aren't going to turn your suburban outpost into an urban nightmare.
(snip)
Philadelphia's extensive commuter rail system has long, in most places, not lived up to its full promise due to poor land use around stations.
Want some evidence of this? Just check out the satellite view of the Levittown station on the R7. That's just one of several examples of a train station surrounded by acres of parking and more acres of scattered housing.
Greater Greater Washington - one of my new favorite blogs, sort of the PlanPhilly of DC except with a more distinctive voice - continues its countdown of reasons not to mandate parking around new developments. Number 5: minimums deter good projects:
Exhibit A is... a former KFC site at 15th and Pennsylvania SE, near Potomac Avenue Metro. The developer wants to build a two-story building spanning the entire frontage of the lot, creating a continuous streetwall. The neighbors want a two-story building spanning the entire lot. Good urban design principles would call for a building spanning the entire lot.
Zoning, however, mandates 28 spaces of parking. That would take up too much of the lot, and underground parking is presumably too expensive for such a small building. The result? A long, drawn-out BZA process or a bad project.
These minimums aren't just mandated by the government however. How many new supermarkets or Targets or even, gasp, Walmarts could be built in the city if we just did away with the need for parking. Imagine a multi-story Best Buy (for example) at 8th and Market with those cool escalators that take your shopping cart between floors. Now, if only I could figure out how I could carry a 46-inch plasma home on my bike or the train. Perhaps a few free spaces for car share vehicles?
From TOD to parking to alternative forms of travel: the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia brings attention to this story about a former rail line right-of-way that will become a new bike path.
From the story:
The county has entered into a nominal lease with SEPTA to use the land for a hiking and biking trail.
SEPTA in 1983 "temporarily suspended" commuter rail traffic on the line, which extends from Fox Chase to Newtown in Bucks County. Since that time, despite pleas from some to reactivate the line, parts of the rail line have been paved over.
I have mixed feelings about this. I love the idea of more bike trails, especially trails that link up with other trails and offer the recreational rider a chance to go very long distances safe from road traffic. On the other hand, it does seem a little shortsighted to take more potential commuter rail lines out of play. I suppose we should worry about getting the development correct around the stations and lines that already exist before we turn our attention to adding new lines. At least the line isn't being converted into a road for car traffic. If the time comes when there's a high demand for a train line directly to Newtown, it will be a lot easier to build it over a preserved right of way than a paved over road.
Via many sources, including Greater Greater Washington and Atrios, I stumbled upon this interesting piece from Philly's own Next American City magazine, or what I like to call "The Little Magazine About Smart Urban Policy That Could."
From the piece:
Although known for wide beaches, lively boardwalks, and amusement activities, a deeper look reveals that a good deal of the vibrancy in resort towns like those at “The Shore” may be attributed to something that many visitors would claim revulsion to in their hometowns: density.
Folks who fight any kind of changes to the land use policies in their spread out suburban towns flock like lemmings to vacation spots that are more dense, walkable, and car "unfriendly" than many neighborhoods in Philly. People drive to their vacation destinations and take a break from their cars. This is something to remember the next time a proposed high-density town home or mixed-use retail/residential development shows up at the borough zoning board meeting.
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