John Rocker says that he would like to see privately funded redevelopment at Hi-Lake. The city and the Met council have set aside $9 million so far to support redevelopment near the train stops. I expect that at least 1/3 is aimed at Hi-Lake, since there are only four "catalyst" stations in the whole route, according to the state's lrt fact book. Remember, after the first ten years of lrt operations in Portland, the level of development around stations (except for publicly built sports facilities and a convention center) was so low that a ten year property tax abatement was made available to developments within 1/4 (or maybe 1/2) mile of a station. If Hiawatha lrt survives the many court challenges, you will see it being given credit for new development at the Megamall, the airport, and downtown. Counuting the $55 million being written off to highway funds for the Lake Street lrt bridge, the budget is $680 million. Funny how the low bid is 20% under the next higher bid... A few quotes from the 1994 Met Council report "Keeping the Twin Cities Vital: Impacts of Light Rail Transit on the Fully Developed Area". "LRT and other major transit capital investments can serve as a long-term development tool to channel a portion of new regional growth along specific transportation corridors. New development would occur over time, primarily around stations. The full development potential would only be realized probably after 10 to 20 years of LRT operation, and would occur ONLY IF THERE IS AVAILABLE LAND AND AN OVERALL REGIONAL DEMAND FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND ONLY WITH AGGRESSIVE PROACTIVE CITY INVOLVEMENT IN ATTRACTING DEVELOPMENT." (caps were italic in original) "However, in virtually every city with rail transit, even in Toronto, where intense residentiall and mixed use development has occurred around the rail stations, the amount of new development induced to concentrate around stations has been only a very small fraction of all new regional development." "A comprehensive economic development plan would work with LRT as its centerpiece if coupled with land use planning, financial incentives to attract investment, provision of necessary infrastructure, land clean-up and land assembly, community involvement, zoning and other regulatory controls." "However, no significant level of net new employment is anticipated in the region because of LRT, nor in these LRT corridors, beyond what has been forecasted, unless cities are extremely aggressive in channeling new job growth around stations." Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED]
