BY PHIL WIELAND, Times of Northwest Indiana
pwieland@nwitimes.com
Before cars, interstates and cheap gasoline supposedly liberated us to live in the suburb of our choice, people hopped on trains. Communities grew up around train stations, and almost everything was within walking distance of the family home.
As the cost of gasoline soars ever higher and the price of fueling the family flivver gets uncomfortably close to matching the monthly mortgage, the idea of communities built around a train station is gaining popularity again.
Several transit-oriented developments have sprung up around the country, including a few in the Chicago area built around Metra commuter lines. Valparaiso is one of several in Northwest Indiana planning TODs that would grow up around the proposed extensions of the South Shore commuter rail service to Valparaiso and Lowell.
"The design movement has been very trendy for five or 10 years," said J. Christopher Lannert, president of the Lannert Group, of Geneva, Ill. "The design features were driving it at first, but now it is the gas prices."
The Lannert Group served as a consultant for some of the TOD projects, including the proposed one in Valparaiso, and its Geneva offices are located in one. Lannert said the older generation fled to the suburbs for the elbow room and because "exciting things weren't happening in the city." The exciting things had already fled to the suburbs.
"The younger generation is not driven by the same desires," he said. "They would rather be downtown by the university. They don't want a car, unless they can afford an expensive one. (A TOD) offers high design, efficient living, and the whole quality of urban life that exists in every city. Why wouldn't you want to be in downtown Valparaiso, for example? It's where it's happening."
Valparaiso's proposed TOD, Village Station at Lincolnway and Campbell Street at the western entrance to the city, is just a couple of blocks from downtown. Some existing businesses on Lincolnway are being torn down and rebuilt as new commercial sites. A large parking lot is being built to accommodate the businesses and the passengers on the express commuter bus service to Chicago scheduled to start in September. Eventually, the city hopes it will be the site of the South Shore station. Residential development is proposed around it.
"It will be more exciting when we find out we have a train coming," Valparaiso Planning Director Craig Phillips said. "The goal of a TOD is to concentrate density and uses around a proposed train station or a bus station, although that's less likely, and create a little community that is self-sustaining in terms of services and residential uses."
"It means a huge opportunity to redevelop areas in the downtown that, over time, have been a mixture of uses without a solid plan for the area," Phillips said. "Wherever the TOD ends up happening will be a logical extension of the downtown, so it makes sense from a land use standpoint and is not just another commercial node."
According to studies of TODs around the country, they have helped revive neighborhoods and preserve historic areas without the dreaded traffic gridlock most usually associate with high-density development.
A study of the impact of TODs found that "communities throughout the U.S. continue to fear density and development, mostly because of the traffic that is anticipated. The case studies of New Jersey and Evanston (Ill.) illustrate that there's little to fear; transit oriented density and development can enhance surrounding neighborhoods."
Lannert agreed, saying TODs tend to be popular with the 25-to-40 age group and empty-nesters.
"Not everyone wants to move to the suburbs," he said. "They want to be close to the downtown and medical care."
"Village Station is still the plan we hope to implement some day, when we find out where the (South Shore) station will go," Phillips said. "At the same time, we are poised to make changes from a zoning standpoint quickly when the time comes. We are a little bit ahead of the game because we thought about this when we thought the train idea was more secure.
"I would be very excited to implement a project like that in our community. There are a lot of examples of the positive impact, and it is a logical progression to what is happening in the downtown," Phillips said.