Transit Oriented Development 2008 Status Report Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 December 2008 This is a controlled document; please do not dupli- cate. If additional copies are required, please request them from the FasTracks Document Control. This will assure that all recipients of the document receive revisions and additions. Approved By: Bill Van Meter, Acting Assistant General Manager Planning December 2008 Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 SUMMARY ...................................................................... 1-1 1.1 Development Activity ..........................................................................1-1 1.1.1 Existing Corridors .........................................................................1-3 1.1.2 Development on Planned Corridors and Extensions ...........................1-3 1.1.3 Systemwide Development Summary ...............................................1-3 1.2 Planning and Zoning Activity .................................................................1-4 1.2.1 Station Area Planning ...................................................................1-4 1.2.2 Rezoning Activity .........................................................................1-4 1.2.3 Corridor-wide Workshops ..............................................................1-4 2.0 DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW ............................................... 2-1 2.1 Influence of Economic Crisis and Other Issues on TOD .............................2-1 2.2 Regional TOD Trends ...........................................................................2-2 2.3 Report Methodology .............................................................................2-5 2.4 Report Format .....................................................................................2-6 3.0 Central Corridor, Central Platte Valley Spur, Downing Street Extension ..................................................3-1 4.0 Southwest Corridor ........................................................... 4-1 5.0 Southeast Corridor ............................................................ 5-1 6.0 West Corridor ................................................................... 6-1 7.0 East Corridor .................................................................... 7-1 8.0 Gold Line Corridor ............................................................. 8-1 9.0 NorthWest Rail/US 36 BRT Corridor .................................... 9-1 10.0 North Metro Corridor ........................................................10-1 11.0 I-225 Corridor .................................................................11-1 i December 2008 Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 1.0 SUMMARY This report provides an update on the status of urban planning and real estate development in the vicinity of existing and planned stations within RTD’s transit system. It provides a summary of development projects that have been built, are under construction, or are be- ing planned within an approximate half-mile of stations, as well as an inventory of land use planning and rezoning efforts being conducted by local government jurisdictions in station areas. RTD’s existing 35-mile rail transit system services 34 stations on four corridors: the 5.3- mile Central Corridor and 1.8-mile Central Platte Valley (CPV) Spur in central Denver, the 8.7-mile Southwest Corridor to Littleton, and 19.2-mile Southeast Corridor to Lone Tree and Aurora. The FasTracks Program, approved by district voters in a 2004 ballot initiative, will add 122 miles of rail service, 18 miles of bus rapid transit (BRT), and approximately 60 new stations along six new corridors and extensions to the three existing lines by 2017. (See Exhibit 1-1 for a map of the existing and FasTracks corridors.) The new FasTracks Corridors include the West Corridor to Golden, Northwest Rail Corridor to Longmont and related US 36 BRT Corridor to Boulder, East Corridor to Denver International Airport, Gold Line Corridor to Wheat Ridge, North Metro Corridor to Thornton, and I-225 Corridor through Aurora. The extensions include approximately 1 mile for the Central Corridor in central Denver, 2.5 miles for the Southwest Corridor to Highlands Ranch, and 2.3 miles for the Southeast Corridor to the planned RidgeGate community. Since the original FasTracks ballot initiative was passed in 2004, there have been unprec- edented increases in the cost of construction materials and sales tax revenue growth has not met expectations due to economic conditions. Because of this budget paradox - rapidly increasing costs and declining sales tax revenues - RTD is currently revisiting the scope and schedule for the FasTracks program. In late 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, RTD will be going through a process to determine how the scope and schedule of FasTracks may change. This process will include extensive coordination with key stakeholders including lo- cal elected officials. FasTracks options being considered include delaying some projects, reducing the length of some projects or pursuing additional revenue sources to complete FasTracks by 2017. The ultimate decision by the RTD Board of Directors on the FasTracks program during 2009 will obviously have implications for development around stations, particularly if some corridors are delayed or cut short of their original termini. Therefore, this report will not directly ad- dress potential changes in the FasTracks program, but will instead make general reference to the process and will address any changes to the program in the 2009 Status Report. 1.1 Development Activity In contrast to the 2007 Status Report, this section will focus on new development activity and changes in the status of projects that were reported in 2007. It should be noted that some projects which were included in the 2007 report have been removed from the database because of changes in the status of individual corridors (i.e., changes in location or the elimi- nation of proposed stations) and further investigation that determined that some projects were outside the ½-mile radius of a station area. 1-1 December 2008 Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 Exhibit 1-1: FasTracks and Existing Transit Corridors 1-2 December 2008 Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 1.1.1 Existing Corridors The rapid growth of development around existing RTD stations has slowed somewhat in 2008 with the addition of 19 newly proposed projects in 2008. Of those 19 new projects, three are hotels, seven are residential, two are office, two are retail, and five are mixed-use. In addition, six projects progressed and changed status from proposed to under construction and two projects completed construction. The new totals for development on the existing system are 11,621 residential units, 4,586 hotel rooms, 2.1 million square feet of retail, 4.5 million square feet of office space, 1.6 million square feet of government space, 143,000 square feet of cultural facilities, and 2.4 million square feet of convention/sports space have either been built or are currently under construction at station areas and bus transfer facilities. An additional 8,094 residential units, 2,445 hotel rooms, 1.5 million square feet of retail, and 1.4 million square feet of office are either in the local government development review process or have been proposed. The bulk of the development activity is occurring along the Central Corridor/Central Platte Valley and the Southeast Corridor. These corridors represent approximately 95% of the de- velopment projects along the existing corridors. 1.1.2 Development on Planned Corridors and Extensions Some new projects have been proposed along the planned corridors and extensions. Of the 19 newly proposed projects, 26% are along the planned corridors or extensions. Since the passage of FasTracks in November 2004, 2,523 residential units, 140 hotel rooms, 2.7 mil- lion square feet of retail, 560,000 square feet of office space, 57,000 square feet of cultural space, 316,000 square feet of government space, 4.6 million square feet of medical-related space, and 200,000 square feet of convention/sports space, have either been built or are under construction in the vicinity of proposed stations. Another 2,765 residential units, 768 hotel rooms, 550,431 square feet of retail, 783,394 million square feet of office space, and 1.45 million square feet of medical-related space, have been proposed for planned stations. The totals above do not include data from projects in areas for stations that were not part of the original FasTracks plan, regardless of whether they are being evaluated in their respective corridor environmental processes. 1.1.3 Systemwide Development Summary Combining the data for the existing RTD system and planned FasTracks stations, 14,608 housing units, 4,726 hotel rooms, 5.2 million square feet of retail, 5.6 million square feet of office space, 1.8 million square feet of government space, 160,000 square feet of cul- tural space, 4.6 million square feet of medical-related space, and 2.62 million square feet of convention/sports space have either been built or are currently under construction. This represents a net increase in 1,144 housing units, 997 hotel rooms, and 1.2 million square feet of office space since 2007. 1-3 December 2008 Transit-Oriented Development Status Report 2008 An additional 11,609 residential units, 3,223 hotel rooms, 2.1 million square feet of retail, 4.8 million square feet of office space, and 1.45 million square feet of medical-related