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Pennsylvania
Columnist: Philadelphia's TOD Projects Can Make Neighborhoods Safer, More Sustainable
Volatile gas prices, unprecedented environmental concerns and reemergent urban preferences have made transit ''a priority for savvy developers,'' who increasingly bank on mixed-use, high-density, pedestrian-friendly transit-oriented development (TOD) as the best not only to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, but also make neighborhoods ''safer, more livable and more sustainable,'' writes Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Davidson, hoping the city will redeem its late TOD start with projects like the $150 million Piazza complex by Tower Investments Inc. principal Bart Blatstein at the old Schmidt's Brewery site near the Girard subway station on the Market-Frankford line.
Although the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) transit network is among largest nationwide, ''decades of decentralization and neglect'' have left many Philadelphia's station areas undeveloped, the columnist observes, told by Econsult Corp. Vice President Richard Voith, a former SEPTA board vice chairman and early TOD proponent, that circumstances have recently changed and TOD prospects improved.
''We've put things in place,'' he said, ''we've put leadership in place -- at SEPTA and the city and the state -- that actually cares about this.'' Both he and Interface Studio multi-disciplinary planning and design firm founder Scott Page pointed to the Comcast Tower and the Cira Centre as good examples of transit and commercial development integration, while Bart Blatstein described his Piazza at Schmidt's -- 80,000 square feet of public space ringed by first-floor restaurants, shops and artist studios -- as a ''five-minute community,'' whose residents can dine, work and play within five minutes of their home.
NeighborhoodsNow Executive Director Bev Coleman and other TOD champions are counting on thoughtful city and state legislation to provide developer incentives for pedestrian-friendly projects near transit stations in middle- and low-income areas.
A 2004 state law, the columnist notes, makes such incentives possible in a framework of ''transit revitalization investment district,'' TRID, where the city and SEPTA would need to work together to use a portion of tax revenue for public transportation capital improvements, site development and maintenance. -- Daily News 4/28/2009
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