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While this project and the others you mention (Reston Town Center, Kentlands, etc) would certainly be much better with transit, it's better to build them in dense, walkable, mixed-use "transit-ready" formats than to build standard sprawl or even nothing at all. Once built, these places only strengthen the argument for transit with a ready-to-go critical mass of development. When transit does arrive, they'll make it more effective from Day 1. And in the meantime, they still provide many of the benefits of TOD: they can better support interim low-capacity bus service, and even if people drive to get there, they can then walk around between uses within the development itself.

Perhaps the way to go is to cap the density available on the site without transit, but cluster it densely in a walkable format near the potential station. The plan could leave additional land near the station for potential future development. If the transit is built, additional density could be granted and the station area be completed.

From my very limited knowledge of the Gaithersburg area, it would seem another part of the problem is the lack of mixing between office and residential uses. TODs like Bethesda and Rosslyn-Ballston are successful in part because they include major office and residential uses in very close proximity, allowing a significant portion of the population to walk or bike to work. Kentlands is mostly residential and retail, while the JHU complex on its 100 acres would be an office/lab island (albeit internally walkable) if it doesn't have a residential component. This use separation is part of why transit here is desperately needed. But if JHU added residential and retail to create a truly walkable place, the area would be better off with or without transit.

by RichardatCourthouse on Jan 27, 2009 5:46 pm • link • report