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SEPTEMBER 1994 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION I Zoning for Transit: A New Orientation By Sa~!ja.l'./eer, AICP Across the country, planning agencies are refocusing on planning and zoning around transit facilities. They are seeking to address such long-range goals as minimizing environmental costs, promoting affordable housing, and revitalizing adjacent contmu- nities along with the traditional goals of trip reduction, conges- tion management, and maximizing transit ridership. With the added formal recognition of imegrated transportation planning in tile lntermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), and the new flexibility in the use of federal-aid highway programs for either transit or highway projects, transit-related planning and zoning has taken on a renewed urgency. This transit-based approach to development differs markedly from the previous trend of transit station development, more commonh' known as joint development. .Joint development generally limited its focus to issues related to the transit agency goals of increasing ridership, ?ncrating revenues for thc transit agency, sharing common facilities with the other development partners, and legal issues related to air and development rights. Trcznslf-Oriented Planning In contrast, transit-oriented developments extend beyond the immediate properD' owned or operated by the transit agency. Zoning for such areas generally extends as far as a half- mile radius but goes even farther for those station areas that have feeder and local bus service. In some communities, the transit station area zoning regulations extend to the entire planning sector or subarea of the communiu,. Michael Bernick, one of the elected directors on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), refers to these new patterns of development as "transit villages." A transit village is characterized, according to Bernick, by its attractiveness to residents living around a concentrated development within a quarter-mile radius ora transit facility'. Along with easy pedestrian access and mixed-use developments, the chief feature of such a viltage center is an open plaza around the station that enhances thc "sense of place." This vision is the basis for current plans undenvav around tile Pleasant Hill, Ha?~vard, Pieasanton~ and Fruirvate transit stations in the Bay Area. Similar efforts to create a "sense of place" around existing and planned transit station areas are underway in San Diego; Portland, Oregon; Atlanta; and New York, and in some Man'land and Virginia portions of tile Washington, D.C., Metro system. Metro's recent experience in Arlington County, Virginia. offers the clearest example of the current trends. Areas around transit stations such as Ross}vn. Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Ballston have grown into their own in terms of identity, size, and complexity of land uses and activities. Most of these stations began as origin points for commuters but now serve as major destination points for employees commuting from other parts of the region. The concentration of development in these areas exceeds that of traditional downtowns in several major cities in terms of residential density and employment. Similar patterns have emerged in Maryland around the Bethesda and Silver Spring station areas. As communities amend their plans, the affected community planning agencies are devising zoning ordinance strategies that will address the unique requirements for such areas. Most of these are based on transit- related criteria and are often separate and distinct from criteria that may be applied to nontransit- related areas of the community. Making appropriate zoning code changes to address transit- oriented developments may require considerable changes to existing code provisions. The extent of change wilt depend largely on three factors: major land-use activities planned around the transit station area; the community's interest in furthering other goals, such as affordable housing, transportation demand management, economic development, and diversification of its tax base; and, in the case of older neighborhoods, revitalization and infrastructure improvements. Sa, Dicqo's C Street Area as it looked i, 1988.