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COMMENTARY
Zoom, Zoom: Need for Smart, Transit-Oriented Development Accelerates
BY DEBORAH JOHNSON WOOD

Smart transit has the potential to create jobs, ignite development, and connect a city. But is west Michigan ready for the possibilities—and the challenges—that lie ahead? The projected possibilities are staggering:

* $1 billion in development along the route of the Silver Line [The Rapid’s new BRT];

* Increases in property values of 30 to 130 percent along the BRT route, three to four blocks deep;

* Thousands of new jobs;

* An $80 million streetcar line in Grand Rapids’ downtown core that could generate millions more in development; and

* Tens of thousands of people relocating to the urban core, attracted by efficient, fast, reliable transit that gets them to work, to entertainment, and to shopping.

Construction of the Silver Line’s 34 stations is nearly 80 percent complete, says The Rapid’s Conrad Venema, project manager. Amazingly, the high-ticket budget, funded entirely by FTA’s Very Small Starts and Michigan DOT monies, involves no local dollars—unless you consider its tax dollars coming back to west Michigan. This is money earmarked for transit; it does not come out of the pot allocated to fix our roads.

Jobs, Development, and $1 Billion with a ‘B’
Transit is among the top three economic generators, surpassed only by labor and capital, says Grand Rapids Economic Development Director Kara Wood. While the Silver Line will carry its first ­passengers in August, a proposed future $80 million streetcar line is just that—proposed. A group, independent of The Rapid, has cracked open a 2008 feasibility study to re-envision streetcars for Grand Rapids.

While their purposes are vastly different, the effects of a city having streetcars and BRTs are not; property values zoom for three to four blocks deep along the routes. “There could be at least $1 billion of economic activity generated by the BRT over the course of eight years because there are so many developable parcels,” Wood says. “It’s the number of trips past any location that’s important. Grand Rapids has experienced a lot of mixed-use development in the last 10 years and can use that experience to develop transit-oriented development (TOD). Not to focus development on ­parking, but on the pedestrian-oriented first floors and encourage residential development and housing, with mixed-use development focused at the BRT nodes.”

Nick Monoyios, The Rapid long-range planner, says that while there’s no empirical evidence specific to Grand ­Rapids’ potential investments along the BRT route, it’s because no one really knows the dollar amounts that could be involved. “Grand Rapids is trailblazing this effort because we’re the first city in the state to have BRT, so we’re looking at lessons learned in other communities.”

Like BRT, streetcars also cause big jumps in development activities. Grand Rapids Planning Director Suzanne Schulz says the city is ready for the development surge. The planning Master Plan has TOD zones developed. The creation of form-based code streamlined the permitting process allowing staffers to approve projects without having to make developers appear before the planning commission. And although most of Division is zoned Traditional Business Area, that could change.

“With the BRT stations, I could see us changing the zoning to the TOD ­zoning, which allows higher buildings and reduced parking requirements. We would just need to amend the (zoning) map,” Schulz says. “We rewrote the zoning ordinance to ensure that we would be encouraging TOD. There’s not really anything else needed, but the fine-tuning of higher density residential—there’s a gap from single and two-family residential to high-rise; we’re missing the mid-range residential piece.”

And all of the potential development means potential jobs. Although in 2012 FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff predicted the BRT route would see “some 30,000 jobs in the central business district will be within one-quarter mile of the new bus rapid transit system,” Monoyios ­cautions that real numbers specific to Grand Rapids aren’t available yet. “If the development is apartment buildings, there may not be many jobs, but if there’s a grocery store, or retail, or medical complexes, that’s a different story.”

So Do We Need Streetcars, Too?
The recent announcement that a 2008 streetcar feasibility study is being refined ignited a hotbed of discussion on news media sites and social media. With a projected cost of $80 million, many Grand Rapids residents are up in arms about spending money on a limited system that still leaves our roads pocked with potholes.

But, says former Mayor John Logie, who heads the steering committee for the study, and consultant Brad Strader, that $80 million will come from private investments. And the $293,895 that will be paid to HDR, Inc. for the study is grant money from federal 5309 discretionary funds and matching state funds, says Venema.

“The streetcar is a pedestrian accelerator—it will expand an area that’s vibrant,” Strader says. “People might walk one-quarter of a mile to restaurants or entertainment, but when you add a streetcar, they’re willing to visit a much wider area of a downtown.”

The refinement study will be done by summer 2014, says Monoyios, and will consider possible new routes due to new developments. It will consider new streetcar technologies that don’t require overhead wiring, it will update capital and operating costs, and it will recommend a funding structure.

“There’s an old rule that goes, ‘a ­rising tide floats all the boats’,” Logie says. “Younger generations don’t plan to buy a car; they plan to live without one. Why don’t we take advantage of that and make this a place to find a job and live without a car?”

This article is excerpted with permission from Rapid Growth, a website that ­features news about western Michigan. To see the entire article, click here. Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media.

This “Commentary” section features different points of view from various sources to enhance readers’ broad awareness of themes and views that affect public transportation.

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