Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?
Parking lots are an integral component of our car-centric urban landscape. It is no surprise that they have been identified as barriers to the creation of viable pedestrian environments, disruptive to the urban fabric, and harmful to the environment. Moreover, parking lots also have an economic impact when the lands on which they sit are not used for more valuable purposes. This economic impact is magnified when the parking lot is close to transit stations.
The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has prepared a study highlighting the opportunity to convert surface parking lots that are proximate to rail transit stations into mixed-use, pedestrian friendly, transit-oriented developments. The study creates site-specific development scenarios for nine commuter rail parking lots in nine suburban Chicago communities. The CNT’s scenarios do not contain total development costs or address all impediments common to such mixed-use developments. However, the scenarios are realistic and are applicable to many similar transit oriented development opportunities nationwide. Therefore, Sustainability Officers can use the CNT’s nine scenarios to provoke further examination of and dialogue about which kinds of development would be most suitable for surface parking lots in their communities.
A term typically applied to real estate development projects that combine residential and commercial or retail components.
