Non-Agenda Item - Notes on Rail-volution Conference in Washington DC
To: Tracy Winfree, Amy Mueller
From: Jim Rettew
Date: October 28, 2002
Re: Railvolution Notes
These are summary notes of some of the seminars I attended at the Rail-volution conference in
Washington D.C.
TOD = Transportation-oriented development
Greyfields: TOD and Declining Mall Sites
• Presents huge opportunity
o Create a new center of town on a community scale
• Best evidence of declining mall - sales per square foot
o Healthy = $250+ per square foot
o Vulnerable $150-$199
o Greyfield < $150
• Other stats on greyfields
o Occupancy usually less than 84%-
0 1970 or older
0 62 stores or less
o Much smaller total square feet than newer malls
• Good stats to measure new TOD
o Residential density - up
o Average block length - down
o Jobs / housing ratio - down
o Housing types - up
o Number of parking spaces - down
• Developer
o Developer resistance
• They MUST know that you care about their profits
• TOD is good for community and their bottom line
• Developers have very specific formula for success
• Most TODs break this mold
• Makes developers nervous to try something new
• They must do their own data collection about the profit benefits of TOD,
but you can point them in the right direction
c Just because the developer uses terms like mixed use doesn't mean they're using
the principles
• Many times, they're first design is still car-oriented, vertical big-box
• Scale must be smaller and ped-friendly
o Could vertically integrate mixed-use
o Include civic and gov't uses in new development
o Integrate all transit - local, regional, and national
o Eco-roofs
• Reduce storm water run-off
Increases life of roof
• Biz tenants
o Retool customer base to dwellers, not drivers
o Put in place buy-back agreement if big-box retailer fails
o Grocery vital to residential feel
• Wal-Mart and TOD
o Don't take their first `no' to redesigning the building
One locale put jogging track on roof (eco-roof), and hid all sides by
residential and other development
o Could put on second floor to keep I" floor for smaller retail
o Redesigned (TOD design or eco-roof) Wal-Mart's doing well, despite initial
nervousness
• Good examples of TOD and old malls:
o Mizner Park, Boca Raton, FL
• Ped-oriented core around central park
• Belmar in Lakewood
• Englewood Case Study: Cinderella City with Bob Simpson
o Objectives
• Special, viable, on-time, include transit, part of community, increase
sales tax, mixed use
o City provided half of initial development funding
About $16 million
o Create framework for Wal-Mart
Didn't let them dictate
Car Sharing
• Needs to be for a very specific area, user and purpose
o Don't just have one for all of Boulder, but for apartment complex, or maybe for
the Transit Village
• Car sharing directly tied to education of user
o Higher the education of community, bigger possibility they'll use it
o Boulder should be doing better
• Most important variable
o Not # of people who access it, but utilization during the day
o Highest utilization range around 50% out of 24 hour period
• Doesn't have to be an electric car
o If fact, electric cars may hinder program
o User already getting used to sharing car; don't want to hit them with too much
change
o Give them a car they're used to and would like to drive!
• Program can be profitable
o For-profit companies may have more lasting power and are market driven
o Non-profit car sharing tends not to stay around as long and not as responsive
• Logistics
o Charge hourly rate (around $5 - but that depends on how much the car is used)
o Technology handles all
Billing, reservation, no paper work
• Make transactions as fast and convenient as possible
• Like ATM
o Membership based
So members take care of car better than rental
Can use other cars in other cities
No security deposit or monthly dues
• Link between car sharing and Transit
0 50% of members access car by transit
o Provides missing link for regional transit mobility
• Company car
o Employees use car to commute to work and then company uses it as their
corporate car during the day
• Need government incentives
o Don't tax it like rental, which can add $10 a pop
o Don't zone it out of residential areas
o Give parking breaks
o Access to HOV
o But don't provide too many incentive for employers/developers; already makes
financial sense to them
• Students and car sharing
o Most users are 21 or older for insurance reasons
o However, university could pickup additional insurance premium to allow
students to use it
Weaving Rail Through Communities and Managing Problems
• Station should be a community destination
o Venue for many activities, not just transport
o Keyword -"knit" station into community
• Station should encourage develop of local area
o Seen as anchor for local businesses
• Avoid problems: When people don't have good info, they go back to their old reference
points
o Station will take too long, be too noisy, too dirty, etc
• Create business plan
o How will station be a plus to business?
• Press sells conflict, so make sure you're against something
o Against congestion; against SOV trip
• Include public relations in budget of contract
o Salt Lake City included about $1 million; plus $2 million in extra improvements
• Include community outreach incentives in budget
• Include financial programs to negatively affected businesses
o City can also provide or back low-interest loans to affected businesses
• Create a community coordination team
o Empower them with real decision power
Able to stop construction; hand out incentive checks; fund extra
improvements
• Incentives based on company's response to noise, dirty, and traffic complaints
• PR campaign for those business affected by construction
o Mention them in newsletters, channel S, etc
• By involving other stakeholders, leverage more resources
• Non profit - "Project for Public Spaces" - can help
Encouraging Transit
• 3 Important Overall Steps
o Legislation
Dollars for program
• Tax incentives
• Mandate transit increases
o Economics
• Financial incentives for employers
o Marketing
• Easily understandable, convenient
• Smart Cards
o Put lots of money/rides put on card so user doesn't have to see how much he/she
is spending every time they take a trip
• Car users don't see meter in their cars when they use them, so don't
know how much they're spending
o Employers can put $ on employee's Smartcard electronically every month
• Fare Share
o Federal subsidy program to employers for anywhere between $35-$100 per
employee
o Gov't offers this first year, then employers reluctant to take it away from
employees after subsidy goes away
o Now giving subsidy over longer years at higher dollar value
• Transit Mitigation Plans from Employers
o Required of employers 25 people or higher
o Phase in with largest companies first
o Some have sanctions for not meeting goals of higher transit ridership, though
many don't have any teeth
• Employer Outreach
o Sort of a sales rep of TDM plans
o Offer training to HR reps
• Guaranteed Ride Home
o Out of 20,000 registered users in D.C., offer about 225 rides home a month
Public Private Partnerships
• Developers can't divide and conquer
o Must talk to City/County of Denver and RTD all at same time
• Englewood mixes private development with city services at new rail station
o City services make it a good convenient place to interact with gov't
• All partners must balance risk of project - very important