If FasTracks passes, high density developments will be encouraged to be built around light rail station, commuter rail stations and rapid bus station. "Your first stop better be to the fire marshal," if you want to develop a community around a station, Gosling told about 100 developers, architects, planners and government officials attending the forum in the posh new city council chambers in the Aurora City Center complex. That's because developers should look at narrower streets to slow traffic and encourage pedestrians, he said. However, huge fire trucks often can't maneuver such streets, he noted.
Some developers have even taken the extra step of buying local fire departments smaller, more maneuverable fire fighting trucks, he said.
Gosling used several case studies from the Dallas and Washington, DC area to illustrate ideas for transportation oriented developments, or TODs.
One, he says, is to get rid of surface parking lots as soon as possible and replace some of it with structured parking. The problem, of course, is structured parking is a lot more expensive. If possible, it's a good idea to have a public-private partnership to pay for the structured parking, Gosling advised. Some stops have become so attractive that it wasn't even necessary to replace all of the surface parking, he noted.
No matter how good of a design, or how "smart" of a development, developers should anticipate Nimbyism, he cautioned. It's inevitable that neighbors will protest high density development, because they fear traffic and congestion, even if the light rail or other alternate sources of transportation will largely mitigate added traffic.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.