REALITY CHECK
So what’s a developer to do? Consider mass transit and inclusionary zoning.
In Anaheim, planning director Vander Dussen turned to transportation innovations. In conjunction with Platinum Triangle, the city of Anaheim hopes to develop a public transit hub known as ARTIC—Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. With both Metrolink and Amtrak service, the center would provide shuttles, express buses, and possibly high-speed rail. In fact, Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and the city council support Platinum Triangle in large part due to ARTIC.
Still, the effect this would have on overall congestion is debatable, as commuters make up only about 20 percent of all traffic on the road, Weitz says.
In Chicago, city planners are looking beyond public transit to ease their jobs-to-housing imbalance. Lee Dueben, housing and community development director for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, is examining Chicago’s ratio of 1.3, which falls in the middle of the range, as part of the agency’s “2040 Go To Report,” a blueprint for city growth scheduled to be released in 2010.
As part of the ongoing research project started in January 2008, Deuben hopes to answer three key questions addressing such imbalances: How do you bring more affordable housing to job centers? Conversely, how do you bring more economic development to areas with high quantities of affordable housing? And finally, what are the transportation implications?
While still in her early stages of research, Deuben is certain of one thing: “All communities have service industry employees, and you want to ensure that people working can live near their jobs.”
Deuben says that inclusionary zoning laws are another way that cities can help to offset the imbalance. In Chicago, about 27 percent of all units built are aff ordable, another middle-of-the-road score for the city, where less than 20 percent is considered low and more than 60 percent is considered high, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
The hope is that such requirements will help to diversify communities and lead to more mixed-use development. But making affordability a requirement for all developments isn’t synonymous with low-income housing. For the state of Illinois, the price range for affordable housing is 80 percent of the area median income for homeowners and 60 percent of AMI for renters. “It’s really only moderate housing,” she says.
Despite these benefits, Platinum Triangle developers have opted not to follow inclusionary zoning guidelines. Only time will tell if mass transit growth will help Anaheim avoid major traffic congestion.
