North Texas transit leaders say the future of the region's growth involves significant investments in transit-oriented developments, or TODs.
A TOD is an approach to planning that involves building high-density, mixed-use development around transit stations or corridors to create active, walkable communities.
On Thursday, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Urban Land Institute hosted the inaugural Transit Oriented Development Summit where industry leaders from both public and private sectors discussed how TODs are changing the region’s landscape.
“We've seen that ... light rail stations and transit centers and so forth have been a catalyst for economic development just naturally by them occurring and their presence,” said Caitlin Holland, vice president of real estate and economic development for DART.
Holland told KERA that after years of building out DART’s light real system, the agency is moving forward with plans to convert underutilized parking space into developments. DART currently has five active TOD projects in the works, including at Buckner, Royal Lane and Hampton stations.
“As we think about transit-oriented development, it’s really the economic development that I think every single city wants," DART CEO Nadine Lee said during a summit panel. "They want to leverage that land and make it productive financially and also in terms of activity."
Lee said the agency is working on pulling together land that's attractive to developers. But she added recent legislation that would cut DART’s funding would also impact the agency’s plans for more TODs.
“All of our hopes and dreams to try to create these fantastic spaces around our stations, we won't be able to respond to that,” Lee said. “We won't have the resources to respond to our development community and to work with you in order to make things happen and that would be a travesty.”
Trinity Metro CEO Rich Andreski cited the Grapevine station along the TexRail as a “suburban success story” for a TOD. He also spoke about how his agency is working with Texas A&M university to create an “innovation district” within walking distance of the city’s central train station. It would include digital art spaces, production studios and performance halls near what’s currently mostly parking space.
“Central station for us is an opportunity,” Andreski said. “We think world class architecture, public space, performing arts is something that really should happen there and so we have a humble little train station, but we’re thinking big.”
Another panel addressed the impact of TODs on housing, job creation and tax revenue opportunities.
Michael Carroll, an economist at the University of North Texas, said TODs are an economic development strategy for cities that must be designed to prioritize people and make room for affordable housing.
“We want it to be human centric,” Carroll said. “When somebody gets out of the station and takes that first step, they want to be surprised.
“Ridership will be an outcome of that if it's done right. If the development is not done right and the plans are not, you know, done correctly, people are not going to want to stay around that station,” Carroll said. “It has to be useful.”
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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