This Op-Ed appeared in the Virginian-Pilot on Tuesday, March 27, 2007:
After years of struggle, Norfolk is on the verge of achieving its goal of building a light-rail line just south of Virginia Beach Boulevard. As your community gets close to starting this major transit project, I offer this perspective from a community that has spent decades putting transit-oriented development policies in place: Norfolk and Virginia Beach are already great places to live and work, and light rail will stimulate investment in both communities and ease traffic problems. But building the line is just the start of the hard work that lies ahead.
Despite the seemingly endless federal and state re-tape that sometimes delay these projects for years, the economic and quality of life benefits are clear.
Metro was the catalyst for transforming Arlington, a community of 200,000 just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. But it was the transit-oriented planning and zoning policies the County put in place to maximize the development benefits offered by Metro that truly reshaped our community. We believe transit is such an essential part of planning that our County Board recently gave the go-ahead for a feasibility study to build a light-rail line along Columbia Pike, on the south end of the County.
Here is how transit altered Arlington: back in the 60's, our central business district was aging, its retail base in decline. County officials lobbied hard, and put up $300 million in local funds to have Metrobus built along the spine of that aging business corridor. Eleven Metro bu stations were build in our 26-square-mile County.
The result? Property values soared. We attracted new businesses, jobs and residents. Instead of gridlock and sprawl, we have urban villages, defined by their distinct personalities and their lively, pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. Today, Arlington is viewed as a national model of successful transit oriented development. We have great schools, parks, libraries, low crime, quality shopping and restaurants. We can walk to many of these places and we have ensured that all residents are within a close walk of a bus or Metro stop.
The key to making transit-oriented growth work
Arlington's "Smart growth" took vision, and the creation of planning and zoning tools to implement that vision. Crucial to our success was an intensive give-and-take with the community to develop clear policy goals.
It took thousand of hours of public sessions to decide on these goals and to create a general land use plan focusing on transit oriented development. Goals included creation of a 50/50 residential-commercial tax base mix (we are now at 58% residential and 42% commercial) and encouragement of mixed-used development that included retail on ground floors. We wanted to preserve neighborhoods, single family homes, garden apartments, trees, and green open spaces. We keep more than 90% of Arlington's development focused within one-quarter mile of Metro station entrances. That means most of Arlington looks like other neighborhoods across the nation.
Building on the base
The County Board now is studying the feasibility of building a light-rail street car along Columbia Pike, in south Arlington, that would bring transit benefits to that end of our County. The community's vision for Columbia Pike from its vision for the high-density Metro corridor to the north. We want less density and lower heights along the southern artery, but the goal of encouraging mixed-use development remains the same. We believe that the vision for Columbia Pike - worked out in hundreds of hours of community meetings - will eventually transform it from a through-fare that carries thousands of commuters daily, but offers little incentive for them to stop, shop and walk around on the street - to a pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined boulevard where people will want to gather with friends, eat at local restaurants, or enjoy entertainment.
Our effort to remake Arlington from a suburban to an urban community is still a work in progress. We still struggle to protect and expand our supply of affordable housing, we strive to improve the architectural design of commercial, government and residential buildings. We have many other planning dilemmas. But we are sure that our transit-oriented development priorities have put us on the right track.
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