Inspiration from Portland
Editor's note: This article is a sidebar to Capturing rising real estate values key to transit implementation.
Installation of streetcars, and the use of special assessment districts to support them, have been inspired by the phenomenal success of the Portland Streetcar and redevelopment of the Pearl District north of downtown Portland, Oregon.
A local improvement district, as the special assessment district is called in Portland, was approved in the 1990s by property owners along what is now a 3.9-mile route. The special tax raised $9.6 million of the $57 million needed to build the line. Other sources, predominantly local, included $28.5 million in bonds backed by revenues from city-owned parking garages.
The investment has paid off handsomely. The consulting firm Strategic Economics reports that along 10th and 11th Avenues, retail has increased dramatically since the streetcar began running in 2001. Prior to the start of streetcar route construction in 1997, buildings on the blocks adjacent to the route filled an average of only 34 percent of their allowable floor area ratio (FAR). Between 1997 and 2004, new development became nearly three times as dense, averaging 90 percent of the maximum FAR.
Ridership reached 12,000 per weekday by 2010, and a 3.3-mile loop connecting to areas east of the Willamette River is to open this year. By 2008, $3.5 billion of new development had been built adjacent to the streetcar service. Since 1995, the Pearl Business Association has grown from eight members to around 450, according to Strategic Economics. Ninety percent of the stores are said to be locally owned.
