Capital region rail stations are fast becoming mixed-use hubs

New Urban News Article with images and sidebar, 7/1/2007

Transit-oriented development flourishes in metropolitan Washington as the transportation authority teams up with the private sector.

Living, working, and shopping within a few hundred feet of a Metro commuter rail station is becoming increasingly common in Washington and its suburbs. Thanks to clogged highways, all-adult households, urban liveliness, and other factors, developers are rushing to construct housing, offices, and retail near stops on the region’s 106-mile commuter rail system, which carries 725,000 riders a day.

A tally of “joint development” projects — those in which private developers build on land owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) — reveals the strong demand for transit-oriented development in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

By the Authority’s count, developers have proposed erecting 5,809 residential units on properties at or near Metro rail stations. That volume of housing is more than double the number of dwellings — 2,571— that were constructed through joint development agreements during the rail system’s first 30 years.