An approach to managing problems arising from suburban sprawl -- such as traffic congestion -- already exists. But Canada has been slow in adopting transport-oriented development, until recently.
TOD is a pedestrian-friendly approach to development that situates high-density, mixed-use buildings around a transportation hub. It also has a payoff for investors and developers, in the value of the property.
The concept has been around for about a decade and is already common in Europe and in some parts of the United States. But communities across Canada are only gradually discovering it.
Placing transit close enough to people's homes and workplaces reduces their reliance on cars. This has a number of benefits, not least of which is a reduction in the energy costs of petroleum use, as well as a reduction in air pollution from exhaust. (According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association, the body that represents Canada's public transit industry, the average cost of a one-person trip by car costs at least four times as by public transit.)
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Another benefit is that real estate developers and investors see an increase in the value of the property. Studies in the United States and in cities such as Vancouver and Calgary have shown that when homes, shopping malls, office buildings and manufacturing plants are clustered around transit hubs, their market value is higher than developments that do not have ready access to public transportation. For developers and operators of shopping malls, being close to a transit hub cuts down on the need to build and maintain large, costly parking lots.
There are a number of reasons why there are few of these developments in Canadian cities. For one thing, the TOD concept isn't well known in Canada. For another, each city (or neighbourhood within a city) presents its own set of challenges for developers -- from dealing with fragmented land parcels that might be owned by variety of public-private entities, to lengthy approvals processes and a lack of policy direction from municipal governments. And historically, transit companies and developers have had little overlap in their goals.
The tide, however, seems to be slowly turning. As cities sprawl into ever-expanding suburbs and traffic gridlock becomes a feature of everyday life for many Canadians, governments at every level are getting the word out about transit-oriented developments, working with real estate developers and transit companies to turn TOD into a reality instead of something that just sounds good in theory.
"With the hard data that we've gathered down the years, we're able to share information about TOD and give interested parties the tools to overcome any obstacles they might encounter. In other words, we're getting the business case out to the public," says Catherine Higgens, director of environmental initiatives for Transport Canada.
Triggered by concerns about climate change, Transport Canada recently launched an Urban Transportation Showcase Program, encouraging communities to design developments that aim to reduce greenhouse gasses and include such principles as TOD.
One of the developments chosen by the program as a successful example of TOD is Mont-Saint-Hilaire, 40 kilometres south of Montreal. This rural community (population 14,500) was able to create a TOD from scratch because in 2002, the Agence métropolitaine de transport, which runs Montreal's transit network, restored the town's commuter rail service. Cooke Bombardier Lesage Inc., a local real estate developer, constructed a railway station and is now in the process of overseeing the construction of a residential and commercial complex planned around the station called, appropriately, Village de la Gare (or Railway Station Village).
The city of Mont-Saint-Hilaire eased the way by changing the zoning from industrial to commercial and residential. The massive site, a former sugar refinery, sprawls over 73 hectares.
"The refinery had lain empty for many years so it wasn't generating any tax revenues for the town," explains Jacques Cooke, an engineer, urban designer and partner in Cooke Bombardier Lesage.
The site first had to be analyzed by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment.
The next step was to consult with residents, to find out what kind of development they wanted to see in their community. The developer was then free to start building what, to date, is the only transport-oriented development in Quebec.
The plan for the village, which is designed in a traditional style, with antique-style street lamps and houses constructed close together in the manner of the early Québécois villages, calls for a total of 1,000 residences to be built by 2012, as well as a shopping plaza to service residents and station users.
Slated for completion by the end of this year is 250,000 square feet zoned for commercial space. The project will be several years in the making, but the fact that it was able to get under way so quickly was largely the result of the co-operation between different levels of government, including the Municipality of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, the developer and the public.
This co-operative approach is something that the City of Calgary has also recognized as being essential to the speedy adoption of TOD projects. Calgary has a light rail transit system on which it has spent about $1-billion to date. In December, the city council issued a set of policy guidelines for TODs to encourage stakeholders to create new developments (or modify existing ones) around transit stops.
"We pored over drafts and consulted with community groups and representatives from the development industry for many months, before coming up with the final version. The TOD policy guidelines tie all the elements together and, we hope, will encourage developers to take risks and to make things happen," says John Lewis, a planner with the City of Calgary.
The City of Coquitlam, for its part, has been incorporating TOD principles into its transit planning for years.
"We recognized a long time ago that to make TOD work, we would have to work closely with developers," says Jon Kingsbury, the Mayor of Coquitlam.
"We're currently in the process of planning an LRT [light rapid transit] network and that will open the door to all kinds of developments in high-density areas along the route." A suburb of Vancouver, fast-growing Coquitlam is home to 123,000 people. An additional 20,000 new residents are predicted to move there in the next couple of years, creating a demand for more commercial and residential real estate. The proposed $800-million, 12.5-kilometre LRT line will cater to some of that demand by connecting Coquitlam City Centre to Port Moody and Lougheed Town Centre.
Mr. Kingsbury looks to Europe for examples of how to make TOD work well. He recently came back from a fact-finding trip to seven cities including: Paris; Croydon, England; Strasbourg, France; and London, where municipalities have been able to integrate heavy rail with light rail and underground networks, incorporating mixed commercial and residential real estate around stations and transit stops.
"They understand TOD in Europe," the mayor says. "In Canada, we have to do a bit of a selling job. People have to be weaned away from their cars and that isn't easy."
Across Canada
Transport Canada's Urban Transportation Showcase Program's choices for funding that include TOD elements:
Halifax: Two new bus rapid transit corridors with transit priority measures.
Greater Vancouver: Transit and pedestrian priority, hybrid buses, transit villages.
Region of Waterloo, Ont.: An express bus corridor featuring advanced technologies.
Winnipeg: Reducing emissions in two corridors including improvements to transit.
Transport Canada
