Getting On Board

Transit-oriented development finally catches on.

By Clair Enlow |   September 2009   |  FROM THE PRINT EDITION

as sidewalks and sewers. Developers like the approach because it allows them to add density—with resulting savings on their per-unit and square foot costs in apartment, condominium and mixed-use projects. In some cases, developers will take some of those savings and spend them on amenities like open spaces, street improvements and green construction. The Mega Development Downtown Seattle, with its easy access to restaurants, theaters and shopping is perhaps the ultimate transit-oriented development. The city is emerging as one key center of a transit system, which, over time, will link communities across the region. “It’s a hub-and-spoke system,” says Griffin. His company, Pine Street Group LLC, is working on a downtown project at Sixth Avenue and Lenora Street that will combine two apartment towers and street-level retail stores. Residents will be steps away from Westlake Station, one of two major transit hubs in Seattle. In the basement of the building is a “bicycle club”—with bike racks, locker rooms and showers for use by any bicycle commuter en route to a downtown job or a regional transit connection.

Along the spokes of the wheel, transit-oriented development will transform station areas into new hubs—mini-downtowns for existing neighborhoods. By clustering jobs, retail and housing around transit stations, more people can be car-free, more of the time.

Harbor Properties is preparing to break ground on a block-sized neighborhood development in south Seattle, just a couple of blocks from the new Columbia City light rail station. For Denny Onslow, the firm’s chief development officer and executive vice president, it’s also important to be close to stores, jobs and existing open space, like parks and protected greenways. “You get those little quiet zones,” he says, along with a sense of community.

The Station at Othello Park, another mixed-use apartment and retail project, is breaking ground along the light rail corridor in southeast Seattle close to Othello Station as well as the existing Othello Park and playground. Othello Partners, the developer of the project, is also in the permit stage for an adjacent project that takes advantage of a city program that defers taxes on developments that offer affordable housing. Together, the two projects will create the density and retail environment that supports pedestrians.

Indeed, the best transit-oriented developments encourage walking by

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