Living in a Well-Planned TOD Community: Articles by David Dixon, Goody Clancy

Last year, David Dixon, FAIA, Principal-in-Charge of Planning and Urban Design at Goody Clancy, a Boston urban planning, architecture, and preservation consulting company, wrote a series of articles that appeared in Reconnecting America's "Half-Mile Circles" blog about the importance of dense residential development in TOD areas.  Reconnecting America is a national nonprofit that advises civic and community leaders on how to overcome community development challenges to create better communities for all.  Its major partners are the University of Maryland's Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) and Transportation America.   Its "Half-Mile Circles" blog presents timely research from urban planning experts on a variety of related topics. 

All of these articles focus on why a substantial residential  presence is vital to creating a successful urban planning environment and why resistance to those efforts is frequent.   Where these doubts have been overcome, development and re-development have created lively, lovely, and successful urban neighborhoods. 

This post presents the final of these six articles--an overview of the five earlier reports--and summaries and links to the remaining posts by Mr. Dixon. 

Creating places that people love

January 27, 2010

Opponents of density often argue that communities oppose denser development. However, Goody Clancy has consistently found more complex attitudes toward density. While neighborhood residents want, with good reason, to preserve the scale and character of their own residential blocks, they increasingly embrace lively, mixed-use, redevelopment of older shopping centers, industrial corridors, and similar places that represent the real opportunities for growth in the urban core.

When asked what qualities they would seek in higher-density redevelopment, participants in recent planning and urban design charrettes led by Goody Clancy in downtown Ashville (NC), at the edge of Atlanta, in suburban Dublin (Ohio), and elsewhere have articulated a consistent vision. They talk about replacing acres of surface parking and former truck yards with tree-lined streets that have shops and restaurants at street level and new neighbors living above. They ask that development meet existing residents’ needs with both neighborhood- and regional-serving shops and services and public parks and squares that foster vibrant community life. Rather than formal public spaces, they prefer places animated by cafés and amenities like fountains and public art that engage the human senses. They make clear that “mixed use” implies genuinely public activities like libraries and community centers in addition to private development.

Participants in these charrettes are fully aware of the challenges of density. They ask that the height of buildings step down to demonstrate visible respect for the scale of the traditional neighborhoods around them. They worry about traffic and ask that mixed-use development include both jobs and housing to promote walk-to-work opportunities for new and existing residents and workers and that traffic patterns be planned to avoid neighborhood streets. They understand that increased density can require additional parking but ask that it be located in structures that are lined with housing or other uses to shield them from public view.

These attitudes cross lines of age, race, class and other differences. In recent years residents in one of the poorest and in one of the wealthiest communities in the Midwest have told us the same thing: while they might not yet love the word “density,” they did love the benefits they envisioned in well planned and designed density.

Part 1: Density deficits

This article highlights the demographics of the residential real estate market over the next couple of decades, noting the relatively high percentage of younger and much older households who want high-density urban housing.  "Demand for higher-density housing and related amenities—shops, parks and, increasingly, jobs—within walking distance is transforming real estate markets. Chris Leinberger, a developer working with the Brookings Institution, reports that mixed-use, walkable developments now claim a premium of as much as 40% per square foot over single-use developments in the same community. Carol Coletta, who heads CEOs for Cities, reports that for every one point increase in “Walkability Score,”  housing values in 24 metropolitan areas increased by up to $6,000. During the current recession, suburban real estate values have suffered far more than urban counterparts."   The market described here fits nicely into the need for smaller, more affordable homes Graham Fuller, Director, GMU's Center for Regional Analysis sees in the Metro region over the next two decades.

Part 2: Restoring personal choices

This article highlights the residential density required to support a vibrant Main Street.  "A study by Goody Clancy and Byrne McKinney Associates determined that between 1,000 and 2,000 housing units within a half-mile radius are required to support a block of Main Street retail (20,000-30,000SF). This number corresponds to neighborhoods with gross densities (not counting streets and parks) of 15 to 30 units per acre, a density that translates, for example, as a mix of narrow-lot detached single-family houses, row houses, and low-rise lofts. Reaching 4,000 or more housing units—a density of roughly 60 units per acre, characteristically found in admired neighborhoods like Boston’s Back Bay—by adding mid- and high-rise housing, unlocks the opportunity to attract a neighborhood grocery store."  RCA proposed achieving 15 housing units per acre--at the low end of this continuum--within the next 20 years in Reston's three TOD areas with a longer term view to achieving on the order of 50-60 housing units per acre in 40-50 years.

Part 3: Building community in the midst of diversity

 This article discusses the role high-density urban housing can play in meeting the needs of a diversity community, a core principle of both Reston's new and old Master Plans.   "Building the foundation for communities that bridge economic differences often requires greater densities. These densities, for example, allow the transformation of public housing developments into mixed-income neighborhoods with sufficient housing to welcome back long-term lower-income residents and draw new higher-income neighbors. High housing values in affluent neighborhoods mean that some of the value of market-rate housing can be used to subsidize affordable stock—a critical advantage in creating mixed-income developments during an era of scarce public resources."

Part 4: Fostering public health

Improved public health--generated largely by urban neighborhood walkability-- has long been a known benefit of dense residential development in urban areas.   "At the same time, rising housing values in walkable central cities are pushing lower-income households to car-dependent outer suburbs where housing is cheaper, as Chris Leinberger noted in the March 2008 Atlantic Monthly. As a result, these Americans could face higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and other conditions kept in check by physical activity."  Greater residential density in Reston's TOD areas will improve the residents health, and could improve the health of a broader Reston population willing to walk, bike, or take transit there. 

Part 5: Enhancing sustainability

 This article--like several recent RCA Reston 2020 articles--highlights the reduced fuel consumption and consequent environmental improvements from dense urban living near public transit.  "Such analyses make a convincing case that significant reductions in energy consumption, carbon footprints, and comparable sustainability benchmarks will require development patterns that focus growth toward infill of established urban areas rather than outlying greenfield sites." 

Part 6: Creating places that people love  (see above)