ULI assesses potential of walkable communities

The development of pedestrian-friendly communities that promote walking and biking as a substitute for driving, rather than for purely recreational purposes, presents challenges that are formidable to overcome, concluded participants in an April 30 land-use forum hosted by the Urban Land Institute.

The pedestrian-oriented development forum was held as part of a ULI project funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The forum's purpose was to document and raise awareness of the value to real estate developers in creating communities that de-emphasize auto use as the primary means of transportation.

As the first phase of the project, the forum aimed to clarify the specifics of pedestrian-friendly development, including connectivity features and appealing public spaces that encourage physical activity. The forum also explored how to build interest for such projects among the development community.

While there are a number of communities nationwide that cluster housing, recreational amenities, shopping, and, in some cases, office space in close proximity to each other, few of these developments are well-connected to other neighborhoods and do little to curb driving within the surrounding community, participants noted.

"A big challenge for this (walkable communities) movement is figuring out how to connect with the rest of the community," said Gary Fenchuk, president of East West Partners of Virginia Inc., in Midlothian, Va.

"What we are talking about is choice," said Forum Chairman Nancy Graham, president of Urban Properties LLC in West Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. "In so many places, there are no choices besides driving."

For instance, while Florida contains a high number of mixed-use communities, several cities have been ranked by the Surface Transportation Policy Project's "Mean Streets" study as being among the least conducive to safe walking, she noted.

With obesity rates in the United States reaching epidemic levels, traffic congestion paralyzing entire regions and social interaction in communities severely limited by automobile-dependent development, there is little question that more pedestrian-friendly development is needed, the participants noted.

However, an analysis of walkable communities should distinguish between those designed to permit walking or bicycling for exercise, and those that encourage "destination" walking or cycling to school, offices or shopping, forum participants.

Over the past 50 years, as development has become increasingly spread out, people have become accustomed to driving to complete even short-distance errands. The participants noted that even in development projects with exercise trails, developers have traditionally considered trail systems solely as a recreational amenity, rather than having a transportation purpose. As a result, such trails are seldom connected to outside destinations.

Moreover, while there are health benefits achieved by walking purely for exercise, a large percentage of people do not make time for regular fitness activities. More people would be apt to reap the benefits of exercise if they were provided more opportunities to integrate walking or biking into daily tasks, participants said.

The high number of individuals driving from one dispersed location to another is reflected in transportation data showing a national average of 230 million solo-driver trips daily. In comparison, there are 98 million multiple-passenger car trips daily; 20 million trips involving walking; 7 million public transit trips; and 3 million bicycle trips. Despite being a distant second to the automobile, walking is "the most common alternative to driving," said ULI Senior Resident Fellow Robert Dunphy, who specializes in transportation issues. "To promote walking, you need an attractive destination, attractive paths for connection, and a layout that promotes compact, multiuse development," he said.

Two pedestrian-oriented projects highlighted during the forum were CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Fla., and the Market Commons in the Clarendon area of Arlington County, Va. Both developments have been financially successful and have many of the same physical characteristics: they are mixed-use in nature, have wide sidewalks and narrow streets, ample landscaping, and gathering areas around plazas and fountains.

The Market Commons was developed by McCaffery Interests Inc., in Arlington. According to Juan Cameron, vice president of development at McCaffery Interests, the project's emphasis on destination walking is accepted by area residents. For instance, more than one-third of the shoppers in the development's grocery store arrive on foot, he said. The project, which combines residential and retail uses, is fully leased.

CityPlace, built on an 80-acre, mostly vacant parcel of land in the heart of West Palm Beach, is a mixed-use development combining retail, restaurant, entertainment, cultural and residential uses in a design that reflects the area's Mediterranean-style architecture. It received a ULI Award for Excellence in 2002.

Forum Chair Nancy Graham, who was mayor of West Palm Beach when CityPlace was built, actively pursued a pedestrian-oriented design.

"The architecture was selected to fit with the character of the community, but it was geared toward how people would walk around," she said. The residential units situated directly over the retail tend to be the most sought after and the most expensive, suggesting that "people enjoy being in the center of activity," Graham said.

The Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit education and research institute, has 18,000 members and associates. Its mission is to provide responsible leadership in the use of land in order to enhance the total environment.