Experts Weigh In -- Are New Transit Guidelines An Improvement?

National Journal Expert Blogs Transportation

January 19, 2010

Last week Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed new livability-based funding guidelines for major transit projects and rescinded Bush administration requirements that based funding decisions on how much a project shortened commute times compared to its cost. The criteria determine which projects get funded under the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts and Small Starts programs.

"We're going to free our flagship transit capital program from long-standing requirements that have allowed us only to green-light projects that meet very narrow cost and performance criteria," LaHood told the Transportation Research Board annual meeting on Jan. 13. "Instead, as we evaluate major transit projects going forward, we'll consider all the factors that help communities reduce their carbon footprint, spur economic activity and relieve congestion. To put it simply, we will take livability into account."

Experts Reply on: What do you think of the new criteria that Secretary LaHood proposed?

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EPA Report on Incorporating Climate Change Information Into Land Protection Planning

From the Report -- Land protection decisions are long-term, hard to reverse, and resource intensive. Therefore these decisions are important to consider in the context of climate change, because climate change may directly affect the services intended for protection and because parcel selection can exacerbate or ameliorate certain impacts. This research examined the decision-making processes of selected programs that protect land to assess the feasibility of incorporating climate-change impacts into the evaluation of land protection programs. The research focused on a sample of the LandVote database, which documents land protection ballot initiatives that sought to protect wildlife and watersheds. Of this sample, we reviewed the decision-making frameworks of 19 programs. Most programs use quantitative evaluation criteria and a bottom-up process for selecting parcels. Almost all programs have one or more advisory committees. The analysis revealed that strategies that might be useful for incorporating climate change into decision making include new decision-support tools for advisory committees, promulgation of different land protection models, and educational outreach for elected officials. As jurisdictions learn more about possible climate change impacts, certain land protection strategies may become more desirable and feasible as part of a portfolio of adaptation strategies that ameliorate impacts on watersheds and wildlife.

The full report may be downloaded HERE

Reforesting Cities

UrbanOmnibus
Venessa Keith // January 13, 2010

Retrofitting our urban building stock to address climate change need not be limited exclusively to increasing their energy efficiency. If “one of the primary causes of global environmental change is tropical deforestation” (Geist & Lambin, 143), then we should approach the adaptation of our buildings as an exercise in reforestation. Deforestation is too often divorced from urban discourse around climate change. In an attempt to redress that, my investigation into sustainable retrofits has included research into some causes of and solutions to deforestation, including a list of interventions already being implemented in the developing world (click here to read more). We must learn from both the causes of climate change and attempts to combat it as we attempt to reforest the city.

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DART to Dallas: Help Fund Rail by Convention Center Hotel

Dallas Morning News
Micheal A. Lindenberger // January 18, 2010

If the Dallas City Council wants the new downtown rail line to run by the convention center hotel, it might have to help Dallas Area Rapid Transit pay for the $824 million project, DART leaders say.

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Cultural Explosion in Dallas

The Texas Observer
Michael May // January 8, 2010

As I approached the heart of the arts district, a few signs of life appeared. A couple paused by a fountain. A group of bikers in spandex flew past like a flock of rare birds. The new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House rose from behind the fountain, with a soaring glass façade and glossy red dome, and across the street stood the new shimmering, metallic Dee and Charles Wyly Theater. By the front door was the person I’d come to meet, Mark Nerenhausen, the president of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. He giddily pointed out the few folks strolling around the plaza. “You know, usually Performing Arts Centers are set apart,” he said. “You walk by them. But to walk through them is pretty cool.”

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Rule Change Could Boost Light Rail Plans in Houston

Houston Chronicle
January 15, 2010

Metro's University light rail line and other local public transportation projects stand to benefit from revised federal rules for funding new rapid transit systems, officials said.

The new rules could put Houston in a stronger competitive position because the planned expansion of its light rail system focuses on moving people among major urban activity centers — such as downtown, Uptown and the Texas Medical Center — rather than on commuter trips from urban workplaces to suburban homes, transportation experts said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said this week that the Obama administration would consider “livability issues,” such as environmental benefits or economic development, in its evaluations of requests for federal money for new rail or bus rapid-transit systems.

The formula used by the Bush administration, LaHood said, essentially weighed the costs of new projects against time saved and distance traveled for commuters.

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EPA Air Chief: We Need to Do More to Reduce VMT

DC.StreetsBlog.org
Elana Schor // January 14, 2010

Obama administration officials "need to align together" to work on reducing the nation's total vehicle miles traveled -- work that should go beyond a pending congressional climate bill -- the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air-quality chief said today.

McCarthy called for federal agencies to work together on a coordinated approach to transportation policy that makes economic and environmental factors an essential part of the mix.

"When we say transportation, everybody thinks 'car'," McCarthy said. "That's a challenge for us as individuals, as a society -- and clearly it's a challenge for me, as someone who's supposed to deliver clean air to breathe."

McCarthy described lowering VMT as the third leg of the EPA's transport stool. The other two, she explained, are encouraging vehicle technology to reduce emissions and promoting cleaner-burning fuels.

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Feds announce change to consider livability in funding transit projects

Transportation for America
Stephen Lee Davis // January 13, 2010

Following through on a policy change hinted at for much of 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced this morning that federal transit officials would begin considering expanded criteria as they select which transit projects to fund, bringing a new focus on improving livability and sustainability.

“Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it,” he said. “We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live.”

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Of Ethnicity & DART Ridership

Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog
Rodger Jones // January 12, 2010

Interesting talk with DART VP Todd Plesko and spokesman Morgan Lyons on the subject of ethnicity, ridership and equity, stemming from my post on a lawsuit out of Chicago that touches on these issues.

DART's data on ridership, Plesko said, is based on surveys of riders by Austin consultant NuStats. From 2007, here's an ethnic breakdown of how DART's riders described themselves (different methodology from national study):

Rail only - 23 % black, 57 % white, 15 % Hispanic, 5 % other
Bus & rail - 61 % black, 22 % white, 11 % Hispanic, 6 % other
Bus only - 55 % black, 24 % white, 15 % Hispanic, 6 % other

Systemwide ridership: 49 % black, 31 % white, 14 % Hispanic, 6 % other

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Taxing Density

Austin Contrarian
January 11, 2010

ROMA, the outfit charged with developing a plan for downtown Austin, has proposed a density bonus ordinance for downtown residential development. ROMA would allow commercial and hotel developments an automatic bonus if they comply with "gatekeeper" requirements, which mainly means complying with the city's urban design guidelines and submitting a detailed site plan for review and approval. ROMA and its economics consultant concluded that the market for office and hotel space will not support a density bonus program.

The big change is for residential. Residential properties seeking an increase from the district's base zoning must not only comply with the gatekeeper requirements but also must pay a bonus on the extra square footage. Half the bonus must be satisfied by providing on-site affordable housing or an in-lieu fee of $10/sf. The other half must be satisfied by providing a "community benefit.

A density bonus is a tax on marginal increases in density. Don't be confused by the rhetoric. It is a tax. The plan raises the cost of that last square foot.

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Taxing Density

Austin Contrarian
January 11, 2010


A density bonus is a tax on marginal increases in density. Don't be confused by the rhetoric. It is a tax. The plan raises the cost of that last square foot. The claim that it does not raise the price because no one is entitled to an increase in density is a bit of misdirection. The fact is that the city has an unwritten policy allowing increases in base square footage. A property owner who wants more square footage can reasonably expect to get it for the payment of a nominal amount. And it is expectations that determine property values, not the words written in the code. Raising that cost -- frustrating those expectations -- reduces the incentive to build that last square foot.

The density bonus program is a bad idea because extra space downtown is an unmitigated good. We shouldn't tax economic goods; we should tax economic bads.

More space means room for more people. And more is better, at least for downtown. More people means more demand for downtown businesses, a livelier streetscape, more eyes on the street. We should encourage the clustering of people downtown. Density bonuses shunt people elsewhere.

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Clean Energy Business Zones: A tool for economic growth

Grist.org
Josh Freed // January 8, 2010

Whether it was steel, the railroad, the automobile, or the Internet, America’s leadership in technological innovation has made it the world’s economic power for the last 100 years. Today, we’re on the brink of the next revolution with the transition to clean energy. Of course, new technologies inevitably push old ones aside—personal computers, for example, killed typewriter industry in the 1980s.

The transition to clean energy will inevitably have the same effect. While many communities will immediately prosper from new solar and wind plants or advanced battery production, others will initially lose jobs and even businesses or industries. Yet these same communities that might suffer during the transition, particularly those in the industrial Northeast and Midwest and rural South and Plains, could capitalize on clean energy. They just don’t have access to the economic tools to do it on their own. That is why Third Way worked with Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) to develop Clean Energy Business Zones (CBiZ).

MOREhttp://www.grist.org/article/clean-energy-business-zones-a-tool-for-economic-growth/

Street Corners vs Cul de Sacs

CEOs for Cities
January 10, 2010

"Walking the Walk" and "Driven to the Brink." Hint: Good urbanism -- strong core cities and mixed-use neighborhoods -- works.

Bright Green Action as Economic Development Strategy

World Changing
Alex Steffen // January 10, 2010


Throughout much of the developed world, but especially in North America, the debate about sustainability is routinely framed as a trade-off between the environment and the economy. The problem is, no such trade-off exists.

Certainly, there are big industries (like coal, oil, manufacture of cheap disposable consumer goods, fast food franchises, auto manufacturing) that will take a big hit as we move into a low-energy, low-carbon, zero-waste future. Many people will lose their jobs, and places that remain deeply committed to those industries are in for decades of suffering.

If we could filter their propaganda and influence out of our public debate for a day, we'd have a series of national epiphanies: our economic futures are not dependent on these guys, and the quicker we leave these industries behind, the better of we are; in fact, bright green action's not only not a hit to competitiveness, it's the new definition of competitive advantage.

By slashing emissions, developing clean energy, investing in bright green cities, changing agriculture, spurring design and technological innovation and embracing new models of prosperity, we don't just meet our ethical obligations not to destroy the ecological foundations of civilization; we also create the kind of economy that is clearly going to lead the way in the 21st century.

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Deep Walkability

World Changing
Alex Steffen // January 10, 2010

Several pieces of Net flotsam today (local columnist Danny Westneat's clueless call for more parking lots around Seattle's new light rail stations; a NYT articleon findings that walkable density appears to increase property values and buffer against real estate crashes), got me pondering again the nature of "walkability."

Walkability is clearly critical to bright green cities. You can't advocate for car-free or car-sharing lives if people need cars to get around, and the enticement to walk is key to making density wonderful, to providing realistic transit options, to making smaller greener homes compelling and to growing the kind of digitally-suffused walksheds that post-ownership ideas seem to demand. So knowing how to define "walkable" is important.

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Of Race & Transit Policy

Dallas Morning News
Rodger Jones // January 11, 2010

An item on TransportPolitic picks up on a theme you hear around Dallas and elsewhere -- that commuter-friendly trains to the suburbs get the cash and bus service for the masses gets the shaft.

This undercurrent may be one reason that some southern Dallas state reps have been decidedly cool toward the regional push to expand rail transit through some kind of new taxes or fees.

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Millennials' Judgments About Recent Trends Not So Differen

Pew Research Center Publications
January 7, 2010

Members of the Millennial generation also give generally high marks to societal changes such as the greater availability of green products and more racial and ethnic diversity. But, as was true of technological innovations, in many cases their views are not much different from those of the age groups that precede them. For example, roughly equal numbers of the youngest age group and those ages 30-49 say that growing acceptance of gays and lesbians has been a change for the better.

The availability of green products is seen as a good thing by most Americans (68%) -- with strong majorities among those ages 18-29 (77%), 30-49 (73%) and 50-64 (70%) saying it is a change for the better. A much smaller percentage of those ages 65 and older agree (45%).

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Austin shows off its new Capital Metro rail cars

Dallas Morning News
Micheal Lindenberger

The Cap Metro passenger rail expansion in Austinhasn't been with its significant setbacks, but last night it showed off a gleaming new rail car that should soon besnaking along the city's 32-mile track.

The cars will remind Dallas riders more of the TRE vehicles than the light rail trains they are used to. That's true in part because the CapMetro tracks are used for both passenger rail and freight rail services

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Rethinking Public Participation for Smart Growth

The City Fix
David Daddio // January 5, 2010

In an interview conducted by Builder Magazine (via CityCaucus.com), American New Urbanist Andrés Duany, co-author of the recently released Smart Growth Manual, argues that public participation is one of the greatest impediments to smart growth. From the interview:

If you ask people what they want, they don’t want density. They don’t want mixed-use. They don’t want transit. They don’t even want a bike path in their back yard. They don’t want a grid that connects, they want cul-de-sacs. They can’t see the long term benefits of walkable neighborhoods with a greater diversity of housing types. This book is a quick read and is dedicated explicitly to them. It’s for the people, not for planning professionals

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U.S. car ownership shifts into reverse

The Globe & Mail
Martin Mittelstaedt // January 4, 2010

Americans' infatuation with their cars has endured through booms and busts, but last year something rare happened in the United States: The number of automobiles actually fell.

The size of the U.S. car fleet dropped by a hefty four million vehicles to 246 million, the only large decline since the U.S. Department of Transportation began modern recordkeeping in 1960. Americans bought only 10 million cars – and sent 14 million to the scrapyard.

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Texas May Enact VMT Tax

Houston Chronicle
Peggy Fikac // January 3, 2010

If you don't like gasoline taxes, here's an alternative: a tax on the number of miles you drive in a year.

The Texas Transportation Commission has directed a fresh study of the idea, and it is not alone. There are pilot projects in other states and nationally to gauge how such a tax would work.

Texas transportation officials say the study is meant to help give lawmakers information on options ahead of their next regular session in 2011, when they confront a funding squeeze that is expected to drain the highway fund of money for new construction contracts by 2012.

“We need to think differently about how we fund transportation,” Texas Transportation Commission Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi said at a Texas Taxpayers and Research Association forum in November.

Delisi said the vehicle-miles-traveled tax idea is controversial, but should be discussed because revenue from the state's main source of transportation funding, the motor fuels tax, is declining. The gasoline tax has not been raised since 1991.

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10 things to watch in Dallas for 2010

Pegasus News
Shawn Williams of Dallas South News // January 4, 2010

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
Dallas Black Dance Theatre at Wyly Theatre
Continued Main Street resurgence
511 Akard
Victory Park
Empty Southern Dallas promises
Oak Cliff streetcars

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Spire Realty adds to its land holdings near the Arts District

Dallas Morning News
Steve Brown // January 4, 2010

Investor Spire Realty Group has bought almost two acres of land in downtown Dallas near the Arts District.

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Hopes are high for a hipper Las Colinas

Dallas Morning News
Brandon Formby // January 4, 2010

Las Colinas' Urban Center sees plenty of daytime traffic as thousands of North Texans make their way to and from work in its skyscrapers.

But nightlife? Not so much.

Irving leaders are betting a number of developments – many built with millions in public money – will soon change all that. They anticipate concerts, restaurants and shops will draw people to the area. They hope more businesses will then follow.

So how is this different from previous plans to turn the Urban Center into a bustling hub of tourists and locals eating and shopping around waterways and on restaurant patios? And what's to set it apart from developments at Victory Park and around Cowboys Stadium that have fallen far short of expectations?

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Andy Sarwal - Austin Mixed Use Developer

AustinAmericanStatesman
January 2, 2010

Andy Sarwal

A virtual unknown in the local real estate community, Sarwal is overseeing one of the few large mixed-use projects still going forward in the region: University Park, a $750 million complex that is transforming the former Concordia University campus north of downtown into apartments, townhomes, a hotel, a movie theater, offices and retail space.

Last year, Sarwal and his mystery investors raised $39 million to finance the first office building, now home to Texas Monthly magazine and an Aveda Institute salon training school.

Financing for major real estate developments remains unusually difficult to obtain, but Sarwal said recently that funding is in place for the hotel, a Hyatt concept called Andaz, and a planned 450,000-square-foot building that will include a Premiere Cinema Corp. theater and about 340 apartments.

'I just know I'll drive longer distances and to all the ends of the Earth to accomplish something,' Sarwal said. 'I will get a deal done.'

MORE on "Whom to Watch in Business in Austin This Year"

DFW 2020

nbcDFW.com

How Will the Arts Develop?

What Will We Build?

How Will DFW Airport Change?

Lessons from the Development Boom

Seattle City Brights
Chuck Wolfe

Infill development, or redevelopment of existing development, is among the key land use focal points in Washington State's urbanized areas. As entrenched land use and environmental professionals, we have long advised clients on the broad range of due diligence, compliance and related issues which arise as infill development proceeds from planning to implementation. This advice has been practical by nature, not the stuff of daily dialogue. But suddenly, our entrenched professional dialogue is mainstream.

But have we lost a practical, implementation-based perspective?

"Green", "sustainable" and "shovel ready"--and their older cousin, "smart growth"--have arrived with a vengeance, albeit often more as separate silos of ideas and inspiration than as interrelated elements of societal change. Even in a now slow real estate market, we now hear often from their advocates and thoughtful critics. How and where should we grow? Will the new residents of our region live, work and travel in a more sustainable way?

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help with learning more about TOD Part 2

myurbanist
November 8, 2009

Here is an additional resource, a Powerpoint summary presented in Olympia about a month ago, which outlines findings after investigation of top barriers to vibrant urban centers and TOD in the University of Washington/Quality Growth Alliance “From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices” report.

As also noted in the post, the recently released Futurewise/GGLO “Transit Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State”, provides an applied analysis of what makes for successful development around transit stations and general guidance for future legislation.

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help with learning more about TOD

myurbanist
November 2, 2009

Moving forward, our region will benefit from two recently released research reports, both of which document the pitfalls and potential for transit oriented development. The first, of which I was the lead author, is entitled “TOD and Urban Centers: From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices”, and was prepared by the University of Washington’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies in collaboration with the Quality Growth Alliance (QGA). The report and companion bibliography are available on the QGA website. The report was recently summarized in a seattlepi.comarticle. The second, the recently released Futurewise/GGLO “Transit Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State.

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U.S. to unleash millions for streetcar, bus projects to reduce pollution

The Oregonian
Dylan Rivera // December 1, 2009

The Obama administration today announced it wants to spend $280 million on urban neighborhood mass transit projects, such as streetcars and bus facilities, in an effort to make more livable communities that reduce pollution.

The news marks the first batch of money for a new Livability Initiative, which U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has characterized as a way to make cities more like the Portland area, where the streetcars, light rail lines and local land use policies promote walkable urban neighborhoods.

The money amounts to pocket change in the context of the billions of federal spending on transportation each year. It makes use of money Congress designated for mass transit projects, but which the Bush administration did not spend. It could help Portland's efforts to grow with streetcar lines beyond the downtown area and grow business for Clackamas-based United Streetcar, the only U.S.-based maker of modern streetcars.

"This represents a significant effort to promote livable communities, improve the quality of life for more Americans and create more transportation choices that serve the needs of individual communities," LaHood said. "Fostering the concept of livability in transportation projects will stimulate America's neighborhoods to become safer, healthier and more vibrant."

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the Green Top 10 for 2010

the Original Green
December 29, 2009

10 the Offshoring Reversal
9 the Sustainability of Preservation
8 Gizmo Green Gets Exposed
7 the Meltdown Vacuum
6 the Return of the Garden
5 the Re-Coding of the City
4 the Return of Durability
3 the Emergence of the Live-Work
2 the Big Convergence
1 the New City

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Mayor Speaks on Dallas' Strong Foundation of Can Do Spirit

Dallas Morning News Op-Ed
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert // December 31, 2009

The coming of a new year and moving into a new decade provides an opportunity to reflect on where we have been and what lies ahead. In the face of this economy, Dallas has moved forward like no other city, and we have laid the foundation for even more progress in the decade ahead. The "can-do spirit," that belief in tomorrow, is again alive in Dallas. In fact, I believe at the next decade change, in 2020, people here will look back on this period as a historic point in our city's timeline that reshaped our image in a positive way, putting Big D on a world stage.

Through actions like comprehensive green building standards and the purchase of renewable energy, we are now recognized nationally as one of the leaders in addressing environmental challenges.

We'll also look back on this period as the time when downtown Dallas finally turned a corner. We welcomed AT&T, Tenet and more than 50 other companies into the city core, and major firms like Oncor and Deloitte renewed their commitments to downtown. Thousands of residents also chose downtown as home.

And we provided compassionate support for the homeless at the Bridge and, in doing so, enhanced the investments we have made in downtown.

Through strategic investments and the commitment of this community, we have built a foundation that will ensure a strong, vibrant economy in the future. And this was the time we invested in our future with the Dallas Convention Center hotel.

I also believe we'll look back at this period as the launch of southern Dallas investment – a time when businesses, developers and investors saw the future in this part of the city. In the last few years, the foundation has been laid for more investment in this area than at any time in the past. DART light rail, the Inland Port, UNT-Dallas and other investments in the southern half of the city have created the impetus for a new economic engine to benefit the entire region.

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New Year’s Resolutions for Cities: 10 Keys to Sustainability Planning Success

The City Fix

Don Knapp // December 30, 2009

Any serious New Year’s resolution requires a plan. But a mayor’s pledge to make his city more sustainable takes a lot more planning effort than your vow to drop 10 pounds. Crafting a comprehensive sustainability plan, even without procrastination, can take a full year for a city, and involve close coordination among dozens of individuals.

Trailblazers like New York City and Minneapolis have already shown that the end product is worth the effort: a detailed blueprint to combat climate change, save energy and taxpayer dollars, nurture solid economic development, renew infrastructure, and improve public health and education for all.

The planning lessons from these leaders were distilled in a Sustainability Planning Toolkit, released last month by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA to its 600 U.S. local government members. Boil down those lessons even further and you get 10 keys to sustainability planning success, listed below. They’re worth a read for urban planners, plumbers, lawyers—anyone who lives in a community that values sustainability and is beginning its sustainability planning process.
It may encourage you to know that such communities are becoming more common. A 2009 Living Cities survey found that four in five of the 40 largest U.S. cities consider sustainability among their top five priorities. Approximately one-half are either currently creating sustainability plans or have finished one within the past year, and another one-quarter finished their plans earlier. For cities, towns, and counties, the keys to sustainability planning success are the same.

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Downtown Dallas' bustling success yet to come, but Uptown is already booming

Dallas Morning News
David Flick // December 27, 2009

Downtown Dallas has yet to become the bustling success story that was hoped for a decade ago. But boosters remain undeterred.

"What we had was a little bit too much optimism and a little bit too much recession," said John Crawford, president of the nonprofit DowntownDallas

The AT&T Performing Arts Center opened in October to international fanfare, capping a decade that saw corporate relocations, the opening of new retail stores and the introduction of high-end restaurants

The most encouraging development, Crawford said, has been the growth in the downtown population.

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How cities can foster demand for electric car

Grist.com
Ben Holland / December 28, 2009

Still in its infancy, the electric car has a future that is both promising and uncertain. It is often cited as an antidote to U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and for good reason—a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study claims that if 73 percent of the country’s light-duty vehicle fleet were electrified, oil consumption would fall by 6.2 million barrels a day. That would eliminate nearly 53 percent of our current oil imports.

Electric vehicles aren’t likely to pour into car lots next year. Our current economy will make sure of that. Nevertheless, many cities can position themselves to benefit from the technology. In doing so, they very well may play the most vital role in the success of these cars.

One such city, Denver, has already begun this work.

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Year's Top Smart Growth Stories

NRDC Switchboard
Kaid Benfield // December 29, 2009

(10) Despite robust ridership, transit service and quality continued to decline.
(9) Smart growth and sustainable communities were largely missing from the federal stimulus.
(8) Exciting developments in GIS- and web-based technology advanced walkability and smart communities
(7) Local agriculture emerged as a component of green development.
(6) Congress, nonprofits and other parties geared up for reauthorization of federal transportation law.
(5) Land use solutions continued to get short shrift in climate discussions that matter. ties geared up for reauthorization of federal transportation law.
(4) The Obama administration stepped up for sustainable communities.
(3) Street design became a major smart-growth issue.
(2) LEED-ND was completed and approved for implementation.
(1) The recession hurt smart development somewhat, but sent sprawl into a virtual coma.

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Supportive housing development for homeless opens downtown

Dallas Morning News
Rudolph Bush // December 28, 2009

The city's first mixed-use permanent supportive housing development with units set aside for the homeless is set to begin taking in residents.

The Citywalk development at 511 N. Akard will provide 206 residences, 50 of which will be set aside for formerly homeless people.

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Favorite New Urbanism Posts for 2009

NRDC Switchboard
Kaid Benfield

Transforming the Market for Development Location
In sustainable communities, architecture and preservation, does beauty matter? Should it?
Virginia adopts innovative smart streets rules
Walmart, McCain forge new alliance to fight sprawl
Considering the role of density in smart growth
Smart growth must become more demanding, more community-oriented, and greener
“If you don’t have safe streets, all the light rail lines in the world aren’t going to save your city”

Eco Architecture: Project Green – A sustainable mixed-use development for Austin

EcoFriend.org
December 28, 2009

Architects all over the world are busy designing developments that are sustainable and have minimal impact on the delicate ecosystem. Designers over at Mithun Architects have unveiled the design of a stunning mixed-use development for downtown Austin, Texas, that represents a comprehensive approach to sustainability.

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Effect of Suburban Transit Oriented Developments on Residential Property Values

Mineta Transporation Institute Report

The development of Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) is increasingly being used to increase transit ridership. TOD, apart from providing the transit ridership, has also gained popularity as a “smart growth” tool that addresses the problems of traffic congestion, pollution, and other ills of auto-oriented sprawl-like development. TOD’s increasing popularity is evidenced in efforts at all levels of government to promote the coordination of transportation and land use.

MORE OF THIS REPORT