Reducing sprawl will require deemphasizing the role and importance of the automobile. The following examples show how alternative plans and designs can help reduce dependency on traditional transportation modes.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) advocates the importance of coordinating land use and transportation decisions and the need to cluster housing, commercial activities, and overall density along transit routes. According to architect Peter Calthorpe and Henry Richmond, "The TOD concept is simple: moderate and high-density housing, along with complementing public uses, jobs, retails stores, and services, is concentrated in mix-use developments at strtegic points alon and expanding regional transit system. The TOD provides an alternative to standard development by emphasizing a pedestrian-oriented environment and reinforcing the use of public transportation." (Calthorpe, Peter, and Henry Richmond. 1993. "Sustainable Growth: Land Use and Transportation.") .
Ballston Station in Arlington, VA is a good example of transit-oriented development. The area around the station consists of residential development adjacent to retail and service providers -- a transit village. Ballston State was a low-density suburban area until 1984. Since that time, 2,471 residential housing units and 3.7 million square feet of commercial space were built within a one-third mile radius.
Arlington County and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority assisted with planning and financial incentives. County zoning has also concentrated density development at its five transit stations. To promote commercial growth in Ballston Station, the owners of the site, a private developer, and minority-owned business enterprises established the Ballston Metro Limited Partnership to market the area and seek tenants.
New transit villages are occurring in metro areas across the country.
San Francisco, CA's Bay Area Regional Transit (BART) announced November 5 that a new BART station, surrounded by a hotel, offices and apartments, could arrive in west Dublin in about three years under an unusual deal between BART and one of the world's largest private developers.
The proposal to build a station with a private developer is a first for BART, as is the proposed construction of transit, businesses and housing in a so-called ``transit village'' on BART property. The agreement calls for BART and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle to build a $100 million development on 17 acres of BART-owned land straddling Interstate 580 just west of the I-580/I-680 interchange.
Using All the Tools From the Toolbox: Portland Links Transportation and Land Use Planning To Maintain Livability.
1 Benfield, F. Kaid, Matthew D. Raimi, and Donald D.T. Chen, Once There Were Greenfields: How Sprawl is Undermining America's Environment, Economy and Social Fabric.
2 Timothy Beatley and Kristy Manning, The Ecology of Place: Planning for Environment, Economy, and Community (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997), pp 65.