Strategies for design : shaping private development adjacent to transit stations

Abstract

Most urban planning practitioners agree that development near transit stations should be dense, should mix uses and should be oriented for pedestrians. To spur transit-oriented development, government must do two things: define the elements that make transit station-area design work, and create the regulations and process that ensures these elements become a part of station-area development. This thesis finds the elements that create a superior pedestrian experience near transit stations, and proposes a system of regulations, incentives and processes to make sure that developers integrate these elements into their projects. Design recommendations are based upon a review of successful and unsuccessful design elements at twenty-one case study station areas in California, Virginia and Arizona. Regulatory and process recommendations are based upon a review of four case study communities that have instituted different strategies for design. Conclusions are drawn from these cases and applied to the Tren Urbano system, a new rail system being completed in metropolitan San Juan, Puerto Rico. To successfully spur private development of high quality station-area projects, government must connect the four elements that influence design: the development community, the government institutions, the development process, and the regulatory framework. First, planners must choose to strengthen either development processes or regulatory framework. In places with a more politically volatile culture, it is better to strengthen regulations than to strengthen process. In stable political environments, it is better to rely on a stronger development process than a stronger regulatory framework. Institutional capacity and development community capacity both improve as government and the development community learn from each other. This feedback loop creates progressively stronger results. In San Juan, the regulatory framework needs to be strengthened, while the development process needs to be institutionalized. The institutional capacity, particularly at the Tren Urbano planning office, is strong. This capacity needs to be transferred into other government agencies and into the development community that will build projects in the station area.