Development at transit stations turns controversial

A citizens’ effort in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC, and adjacent Takoma Park, Maryland, highlights what may become an issue at a number of transit stations across the nation: how to balance development against the need for affordability, neighborhood amenities, and access to the transit system.
Many Takoma residents are opposing a plan by developer  EYA  (formerly Eakin, Youngentob & Associates) that calls for constructing 90 townhouses with one- and two-car garages, selling for “whatever the market will bear” (possibly $600,000 to $800,000 or more) adjacent to the Takoma Metro rail station. In addition to EYA’s proposal, there are other plans for building 560 to 640 housing units within three blocks of the station, in an old neighborhood of narrow streets. A 2003 DC Department of Transportation study showed that as more housing units are built, peak-hour congestion will intensify at already slow-moving Takoma intersections.
Faith Wheeler, a neighborhood resident, local elected official, and member of the CNU Washington chapter, fears that significantly increased congestion will make it harder for people to get to and from the station and discourage them from shopping in an up-and-coming commercial area. High housing prices would accentuate the income gap in the District, Wheeler also said, and existing green space near the station would be reduced in the developer’s plan. Existing public parking, which Wheeler says is usually filled by people using the Metro, would be cut in half in the developer’s plan.

Affordability issues
Similar concerns about congestion and letting upper-income people occupy the lion’s share of housing close to a Metro station have been voiced in Vienna, Virginia, where Pulte Homes is planning the high-density MetroWest development for 2,250 households. Some contend that well-off people are less likely to ride trains than are middle- and lower-income people, and therefore transit-oriented development should include a sizable number of “affordable” units. In Fairfield, Connecticut, plans for the Fairfield Metro Center — a new station on the busy New York-New Haven commuter rail line that would be accompanied by nearly a million square feet of office, hotel, and retail development — are making some nearby residents nervous about possible traffic tie-ups on the streets.
In Takoma, a group called Friends of Takoma Transit has put forth an alternative proposal, designed by Lex Ulibarri. It calls for mixed-income rowhouses, lofts, and live-work units, and includes a liner building that would shield a two-story garage. All would be built on the footprint of the present parking lot next to the Metro.
The DC Zoning Commission approved a Takoma Overlay Zone, which requires ground-floor retail along three “central arteries.” The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority recently held a six-hour planning session for residents, during which many participants supported the Friends plan.