The
impending consideration is also a good excuse to take a look at existing transit-oriented
developments (TODs) in the Bay Area.
BART is a good source of those.
So, on a
recent drizzly morning, I played hooky. I
collected a friend and headed for a BART station to spend the day taking stock
of TODs. (My definition of hooky has
changed over the years.)
Our first stop was Pleasant Hill. During my post-college, pre-marriage years, I lived a short walk from the Pleasant Hill BART station, so this site had particular interest to me.
From site-planning
and architectural perspectives, Pleasant Hill is a success. It’s a fine layout, filled with good-looking
buildings. But it lacks life. Many of the storefronts remain unleased. And the sidewalks were nearly empty. To the extent that we spied residents, they
were seen driving luxury cars into parking garages.
The sense
was that the project, thus far, was a financial success. (There remains at least one additional pad on
which a building can be constructed.)
But the sense of vibrancy that one would hope to see in fully engaged TOD
was absent. Perhaps the deficiency was the
community. Central Contra Costa County
is an affluent place. A home at a TOD
might be perceived as a parallel alternative to a single-family home in a nice
subdivision, not as a different way of life.
It’s
certainly possible, maybe even likely, that the Pleasant Hill TOD will
eventually develop the street life for which one would hope. But it’s not yet there, at least not on a
drizzly Thursday morning.
Our second
stop, which was also our breakfast stop, was the Fruitvale TOD. It couldn’t have been more different from
Pleasant Hill. In part because it has
existed longer, but also in part because it serves a demographic that is more
likely to engage in an active street life, the Fruitvale TOD is vibrant. All of the ground story retail space is
leased. And office uses are creeping
into the upper storiesOne
difference between Pleasant Hill and Fruitvale is neighborhood context. During my years of living near the Pleasant
Hill BART station, the only land uses within a reasonable walkable perimeter were
residential. Since that time, most of
the bare parcels have been developed into modern office complexes, which also
don’t create a pedestrian life. From a
walkability perspective, the Pleasant Hill TOD is largely isolated and must
create its own pedestrian culture.
In
comparison, the site of the Fruitvale TOD was surrounded by existing street
life, such as International Avenue and the Fruitvale Public Market. The Fruitvale TOD was a complement to an existing
pedestrian culture. It didn’t need to
invent its own.
There are social concerns at Fruitvale. There have been crime reports from the neighborhood. And when my friend asked to use a restroom, he was told to show his restaurant receipt to a security guard who personally escorted him to the facilities. But that is the nature of the Fruitvale neighborhood. And it will hopefully improve over time.
Lastly, we
visited Richmond. It was the most
disappointing of the three. The
architecture was stark, the site planning was underdeveloped, and there was
little retail. As a result, there was no
pedestrian culture. And, unlike Pleasant
Hill, there didn’t even appear to be a good setting in
which one could develop.
If we compare
the three to Petaluma, we can see the challenges. Although there is more of an existing
pedestrian culture near the Petaluma site than in Pleasant Hill, it’s far less
than in Fruitvale. Petaluma runs the
risk of looking like and functioning like Pleasant Hill for a few years. And while the current architectural concepts
for Petaluma are far better than in Richmond, there may be pressure to dumb
down the architecture to get the project underway.
Adopting the
Petaluma Station Area plan will be a good step.
But it’ll only be a first step. The
courage to stand by the plan and to allow time for the pedestrian culture to
mature will also be essential.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
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