The City of Edmonton’s strategic plan, The Way Ahead, sets out a vision of a more compact, transit oriented and sustainable city, where more people walk, cycle and use transit than they do today.
Good words. Good intentions. But how do you make that happen?
Trends in urban design and development around the world point to something called Transit Oriented Development, or TOD, as one of the best ways to encourage the compact, transit-oriented city that our vision imagines.
Simply described, TOD is development that happens within 400 metres of a LRT station or Transit Centre. That’s basically a 5-minute walk in any direction for an average person. Properly done, TOD results in a diverse mix of housing, shopping and employment in the TOD area. It also features a network of walkable and bikeable streets and pathways with easy access to the transit station. Good TOD even includes some parking for cars, as well as lanes for buses.
These “station neighbourhoods” created by TOD can become vibrant hubs of activity that are desirable places to live and to visit for their shops, services and public spaces.
TOD isn’t a new concept. Elsewhere in the world, the greatest cities all have superior transit systems that encourage TOD development. For example, in Europe space for development is at a premium, so the kind of compact, higher-density development found in TOD has been commonplace for years. It’s natural there to combine housing with shopping, services, employment and public places to create livable communities where people can walk or bike and take transit more often than they use a car.
But even in Canada, TOD is becoming much more common as major cities develop and expand their rapid transit networks, even as they try to curb urban sprawl. Cities like Vancouver, Montreal and even Calgary have achieved some notable TOD successes. Check out a report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on some Canadian TOD case studies.
Here in Edmonton, we don’t have Transit Oriented Development on a significant scale outside of downtown and the University of Alberta. At least not yet. The closest example of TOD in Edmonton is the Century Park redevelopment on the old Heritage Mall shopping centre lands. When the development plans for Century Park were drawn up in 2004, they anticipated the arrival of a south LRT line and a station that would make transit use for residents of the new neighbourhood easier. The development was designed accordingly. And so it has come to pass that the LRT has arrived, even though the Century Park neighbourhood with its green spaces, pedestrian and bicycle networks and retail component has yet to be fully completed.
Thanks to City Council’s visioning process that set out The Way Ahead, other plans and visions have evolved that will also lead to more TOD in Edmonton. The Way We Grow (Edmonton’s Municipal Development Plan) and The Way We Move (Edmonton’s Transportation Plan) also seek a more compact, transit oriented, walker and bike friendly city. They have guided the city’s aggressive push to expand our LRT network, so that it will eventually have five major lines reaching out to all areas of the city.
Eventually, Edmonton will have more than 40 new LRT stations – including many in areas where there is a significant amount of land available to be developed (greenfield areas) or re-developed (like the City Centre Airport lands). These are natural sites for TOD.
To encourage TOD in Edmonton, as well as to guide it throughout the city for the next 30 years, City staff have been busy developing some draft TOD Guidelines. I’m proud to be part of the team that has been involved in the Guidelines, because I see them as a proactive move by the City to set out the city’s expectations for the type of development that is appropriate near transit stations in any future developments or redevelopments. Basically, we will have the “rules” in place before development proposals are made!
The TOD Guidelines recognize that Edmonton is unique and it needs its own unique approach to TOD. Not all LRT stations and transit centres should be developed in the same way. TOD should be developed to respect the character and reality of the local area and in some areas this translates to a very moderate TOD approach . Consequently, the draft TOD Guidelines identify seven Station Area Types that have unique development expectations.
This month (May), we’re “going public” about TOD in Edmonton and the draft Guidelines by hosting a series of 5 open houses at locations around the city. There will be a short presentation at each session and members of the Project Team will be available to talk about TOD and the Guidelines. Feedback will help us to refine and finalize the Guidelines before making a recommendation to City Council later this year.
If you want to know more about TOD, and the draft TOD Guidelines, join as at an open house. View the TOD guidelines for the dates and locations. You can also find the draft guidelines there, as well as other information and even a link to an on-line feedback questionnaire.
I’m looking forward to the open houses and hearing what people think about TOD and our draft Guidelines. It’s an exciting time to live in Edmonton!