Substantial return on investment is possible when linked to strong New York State incentives and technical support for Transit-Oriented Development that has a meaningful amount of fair and affordable housing.

The Wyandanch Rising project is revitalizing an economically depressed section of the town of Babylon

It has been said that New York City is the world’s best example of transit-oriented development. As now built, New York City’s five boroughs have an amazing density and propinquity of employment and population centers as well as cultural, recreational, medical and educational assets connected by subway and bus systems.

Metropolitan area suburbs are integrated into this web with suburban bus and train lines running south, southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, and east. All points of the compass feed in to and connect to the center, including New Jersey Transit, PATH, the Port Authority’s bus system, MTA West-of-Hudson, MetroNorth’s Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, the LIRR and LI Bus. In the New York City metro area suburbs alone, there are over 244 train stations and many hundreds of bus stops used by hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers (the vast bulk of these stations/stops are in Long Island and Westchester Counties though there are some train stations and bus stops in Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess Counties) each day. This additional connectivity creates North America’s largest and most successful metropolitan area.

At each one of these stations or stops, there is a future Equitable (fair and affordable) –Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) opportunity.

Empire State Future, and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign are working in partnership to develop a state strategy to expand and accelerate development in the vicinity of transit with a meaningful component of fair and affordable housing.  

The following NYS goals have been identified:

1. Local Planning Regulatory Changes: Zoning for Equitable Housing and TOD, Local Complete Streets Policies, Parking Strategies;
2. New York State Agency TOD Support: New York State Department of Transportation TOD Endorsement, TOD Sample Zoning Codes;
3. A new New York State-supported E-TOD effort via the Regional Economic Development Councils or through a New York Statewide E-TOD Program: Infrastructure Needs, Subsidies for Equitable Units.

Benefits:

ETOD is about CommunityBuilding.  ETOD addresses issues of: transit-access, transit-finance, walking, biking, parking, housing, equity, owner/rental, multi-family, retail, permanent jobs, construction jobs, zoning , market demand, demographics (brain drain, youth flight, downsizers), preference for smaller homes, desire to be near denser more lively places and importantly, the very real risk of displacement and gentrification. Adding appropriate and equitable density to this large intricate concatenation will increase prosperity with the most efficient combination of investment and infrastructure spending.

Economic Development Benefits:

ETOD may prove to have adequate metrics to justify economic development funds through the current New York State Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) processes.  It is estimated that over a decade, an annual state investment of $100 million in an ETOD Program would generate at least 10,000 affordable and equitable units.

The total ETOD Project, including both market and fair/ affordable units, would be an estimated 40,000 units, adding roughly 100,000 new residents.  It is reasonable to assume that a considerable amount of private investment will be induced by such a state program.  In fact, if $300,000 is assumed to be the average development cost per unit and if 40,000 units are created, the total private investment would be $12 billion, via a $1 billion, 10-year ETOD Program.  The affordable units alone would create 8,000 new construction jobs.  A total of 40,000 affordable and market-rate units would create 32,000 construction jobs[1].

Equity Benefits:

There are considerable benefits to all residents and to the community stemming from mixed-income, racially diverse developments that achieve the proper balance of market and non-market households and have been marketed affirmatively and fairly.  Among the benefits to the residents of “affordable” units would be access to average and above-average school systems and the long-term opportunities this is known to provide.   Affordable ETOD units will be as walkable to transit and as attractive as most, if not all, of the non-affordable units.

Transit Revenue benefits:

Development in the vicinity of transit that incorporates equitable units will result in additional transit ridership.  If .8 people in each of the future units uses MetroNorth or LIRR and the average monthly commute cost is $200, then there could be an annual new revenue source to the commuter railroads of $19.2 million (8,000 people x 12 months x $200).  There would be some additional variable costs to the Railroads associated with these new revenues.

Household Savings benefits:

The average American household has more than one car. The Institute of Transportation Engineer recommends 1.2 parking spaces per unit for new suburban TOD households.  That would mean for 10,000 households, there would be 12,000 cars instead of 18,000.  Assume the average second car costs a family $7,000 a year (financing, maintaining, operating, garaging).  It should be noted that AAA uses an $8,900 figure for the average of all cars.   Then there would be an annual $7,000 x 6,000 cars savings to the residents of $42,000,000, much of which would likely then be spent locally and regionally.

Developer Savings benefits:

Parking garages can be one of the hardest challenges in the development of TOD. It often involves the loss of valuable space close to transit stations, which drivers do not like, but that space is more valuable for housing or retail. Parking garages are expensive with development costs ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 per space.[1]  And no matter how trussed up, garages are often ugly and hard to blend in with the surrounding environment.  Smaller structures are often more conducive to main street and downtown environments. Coordinating parking strategies would allow for fewer spaces that can still accommodate the communities needs — the spots that TOD households don’t need can be utilized by   commuters or for the highest and best use.

To read more about Equitable Transit-Oriented Development and other efforts across the nation read our blog: Transit-Oriented Development: vital to an interconnected system

1 According to the National Association of Home Builders, for every 100-unit multifamily property of affordable or market rate apartments, 80 construction jobs are created when building new (NAHB, 2010). http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=3&contentID=35601&subContentID=265044

2 Douglas Shoemaker with Center for Transit Oriented Development 08/26/06