DESIGNING TRANSIT-BASED COMMUNITIES

The concept of or more broadly development increasingly is part of the language of urban planning today. Transit districts and city planning departments are looking to greater densification at rail transit station areas to meet housing needs and maximize transit ridership. Rail station areas provide opportunity to do more than add a few additional housing units or commercial structures near the station. Station areas provide opportunity to build transit-based communities, to build cluster residential with mixes of uses that maximize the rail transit line, and that results in housing desired by consumers. This paper discusses four examples of transit-based community design in California. In each case, the designer has looked at the station area in the form of more than a collection of buildings, as an integrated neighborhood. The designs discussed are of areas around two existing transit stations, Pleasant Hill BART and Hayward BART, and two prospective stations, a station on the Sacramento light rail line, and the proposed East Dublin BART station.