A report to remember
Time escapes me more often than I’d like to admit to myself. And then things pop up unexpectedly. I’ve been waiting for the WRT Solomon report on the Alameda Point Station Area Planning process. This is the follow-on report to the meeting in March 2007 which looked at planning at Alameda Point and ways in which land-use affects transportation choices.
Well yesterday, a summary of the reports findings was sent to the City Council and Friday should prove to be even more interesting than I had hoped. The report presents three options for discussion (these are not proposed plans).
1. The PDC
This conceptual plan includes approximately 1800 new housing units and approximately 9,000 new jobs. The residential component of the plan is constrained to single family homes and two family homes (duplexes or duets) and a residential density of 21 units per acre. The plan includes 450 affordable housing units (25% of 1800). One hundred fifty seven (157) of the affordable units are located in multifamily rental units. To make room for the residential units, a number of buildings that contribute to the character of the NAS Historic District must be demolished. All residents and businesses pay annually into a transit district which funds additional transit services to supplement AC Transit bus service and ferry service to Alameda Point. The funds are used to fund shuttle services to BART, car share facilities, transit facilities, and other transit
improvements.
2. The PDC – Transit Oriented land use
(This plan is essentially the same as the PDC, but with the housing configured in a non-measure A compliant way same number of households, not limited to duplexes it also increases the retail sf to include local serving retail that cannot exist in the PDC)
The Transit Oriented PDC conceptual plan also includes 1800 housing units, 450 affordable housing units, and 9,000 jobs. In this alternative, the 1800 units are distributed among a much more diverse range of housing types ranging from large lot single family homes to four and five story multi-family residential structures with ground floor retail to lofts and studios in rehabilitated historic structures. The maximum residential density is approximately 32 units per acre. All residents and businesses pay into the transit district, similar to the PDC.
3. The Transit Maximum Plan
(This plan increases the households from 1800 – 4000, everything else is the same as the transit oriented land use plan)
This conceptual plan includes approximately 4,000 housing units, 1,000 affordable units (25%), and 9,000 jobs. The units are distributed among the full range of housing types that are available in the Transit Oriented PDC and also limited to four to five stories, but within the transit station area, a maximum residential density of 48 units per acre is allowed. All residents and businesses pay into the transit district, similar to the PDC and the Transit Oriented PDC.
Without further ado, here are the findings of the report (emphasis added):
The 2005 Preliminary Development Concept (PDC)
- By limiting the range of housing types to single family and duplex housing units with a maximum density of 1 unit for every 2,000 square feet of land (21 units per acre), the PDC effectively limits the total number of housing units possible at Alameda Point, thereby limiting the number of automobile trips that may be expected to occur.
- The physical form and household characteristics of Alameda Point under the PDC will be similar to Harbor Bay development with over 90% of the housing being single family or two family homes. The limited range in housing types will attract a limited range of household types and incomes.
- The transportation characteristics of the households in the PDC will also be similar to Harbor Bay with approximately 16% using the ferry, AC Transit, or BART to commute to work. (The major difference between the PDC and Harbor Bay is that all PDC households and businesses will be paying into a transit district. This may encourage a larger percentage of households to use the transit provided than at Harbor Bay. At Harbor Bay, only the businesses pay for shuttle services to BART.)
Prohibiting residential adaptive reuse of the historic buildings and limiting residential development to land intensive single-family homes increases the economic incentive to remove historic structures in the PDC.- The narrow range of housing types provided weakens the economic viability of the PDC.
Transit Oriented PDC
- The Transit Oriented PDC includes a greater variety of housing types, which will attract a wider range of household types and incomes.
- Allowing multifamily housing enables the Transit Oriented PDC to locate more households within walking distance of the transit station.
The Transit Oriented PDC generates more transit trips and less automobile trips than the PDC. A typical household in a multifamily building generates less auto trips and more transit trips than a typical household in a single-family unit. A typical moderate income or low-income household generates less automobile trips and more transit trips than a typical household that can afford to buy a market rate single-family home - The physical form and household characteristics of the Transit Oriented PDC with approximately 50% of the units in multifamily structures will be more similar to the form and household characteristics found on the main island of Alameda.
- The travel habits of the residents in the Transit Oriented PDC will also be similar to the more transit oriented, diverse areas of the main island of Alameda.
- Allowing residential adaptive reuse of the historic buildings and concentrating some of the housing in multifamily structures reduces the economic incentive to remove historic structures in the Transit Oriented PDC relative to the PDC.
- The wider range of housing types provided improves the economic viability of the Transit Oriented PDC relative to the PDC. However, the replacement of single-family homes with the same number of multifamily units also reduces the overall value of the development plan, reducing its ability to attract private investments and capital.
Transit Maximum
- The additional housing units in the Transit Maximum alternative generate more transit riders and more automobile trips than both the PDC and the Transit Oriented PDC
- The additional units also generate significantly more funding for transportation improvements such as bus rapid transit improvements from Alameda Point to the 12th Street BART station and the Fruitvale BART station. If these improvements cause 1 % of current Alameda commuters to switch from their cars to transit, the reduction in commute trips would offset the additional cars generated by the Transit Maximum alternative.
- The physical form and household characteristics of the Transit Oriented PDC will be more similar to the form and household characteristics found on the main island of Alameda.
- Allowing residential adaptive reuse of the historic buildings and concentrating some of the housing in multifamily structures reduces the economic incentive to remove historic structures in the Transit Oriented PDC relative to the PDC.
- The increase in the number of units also makes the Transit Maximum alternative the most financially feasible of the three alternatives.
Jack B.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
John, according to the Alameda Sun… SunCal has defaulted. Or maybe the check is in the mail. Apparently they have defaulted elsewhere.
My question is… is this the report that was funded by SunCal?
John Knox White
April 25th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
The report was funded by a grant from the MTC.