Introduction
With growing gas prices and an increased demand to limit our carbon footprint in California, public transit oriented living spaces are on the rise. It is a movement that will alter the urban landscapes, which are currently extremely dependent upon the use of private automobiles, by locating new developments within closer access to public transit hubs as well as creating an environment where people live, work, shop, and play all within close proximity to each other. By created an urban environment where people either live close enough to walk to work or close enough to public transit to walk to it people will have the option of to become less reliant on their car. By changing the downtown districts from only shopping or only business zones into mixed-use areas new developments will need to be implemented which means either vacant parcels will be utilized or pre-existing building will be altered to meet these new demands. In two Northern California counties, Sonoma and Marin, this may become a reality in 2014 when the SMART (Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit) system is completed. The SMART system is constructing a rail line from Larkspur to Cloverdale with stops expected in all the major Sonoma County towns along highway 101, which includes Petaluma, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Windsor, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale and towns within Marin County. The rail line will connect to the Larkspur Ferry which connects to the ferry building in San Francisco, making it possible for someone living in Cloverdale to travel all the way to downtown San Francisco without the use of a car. The rail line is expected to start moving passengers by the summer of 2014, which means the areas surrounding the future train station locations have approximate 3 years to develop potential sites. The new sites will have to be close enough to the train station to walk there but also close enough to walk to other downtown amenities such as shopping and jobs. The new sites will have to be large enough to build high density, mixed-income, transit oriented developments while at the same time remain close enough to downtown centers to allow people access to shopping, restaurants, jobs, and other basic necessities by foot or public transit. With 14 stations proposed along the SMART system the door opens for development firms in those 14 different locations to begin looking at potential sites for development. I chose to examine the potential sites surrounding the Proposed Healdsburg Train Station because it is the town I grew up in and I would love to see a transit oriented high density residential complex close enough to walk to downtown while still be able to access the greater bay area without having to own a car.
Methods
My ultimate goal was to select a single parcel to develop with walking distance to the new train station in Healdsburg while also remaining within walking distance to downtown. The parcel would need to be large enough to build high density living while remaining affordable enough to make a profit. For these parameters I needed to limit parcels to those larger than 30,000 Square Ft and decline parcels over $4 million. Other factors that would limit my search for the optimal parcel would be slope, hydrology, and land use zoning for the city of Healdsburg. To accomplish this I had to obtain data from various sources starting at the state level working my way down to the city level and final the individual parcel level. I began by clipping all of the layers of analysis to the Healdsburg city boundary as most of them were obtained at the countywide extent. I then geocoded the Healdsburg train station using latitude and longitude data I obtained from the SMART website. I then created a ¼ mile buffer around the train station and subsequently another ¼ mile buffer around the downtown plaza. I then used a select by location query to select only the parcels within the intersection of the two buffers. I then created a 50ft buffer around all streams in the downtown environment, with which I was able to select any of the preselected parcels that intersected this buffer and then removed them as any overlap between streams and the new development would be unacceptable. The next step was to remove any parcels from the current selection that overlapped any unacceptable slope ratings of greater than 5%, using an attribute query to select any parcels overlapping a slope greater than 5%. The next step involved evaluating the zoning restrictions on parcels within the city of Healdsburg. I chose to only accept parcels zoned as either commercial or residential as my new development site would incorporate both and the zoning would have to be altered either way, but at least one of the two would be allowable. After refining my search down to approximate 50 parcels I used an attribute query to select only parcels greater than 30,000 square ft. I then used another attribute query to select only parcels that were appraised under $4 million dollars
Results
After every layer was incorporated into the analysis only one parcel remained which was excellent because it made making a final decision very simple. The slope layer while necessary didn’t have a large impact on selecting parcels because the greater downtown area is relatively flat, as are most downtown arenas. The streams buffer of 50ft also played a minimal role in eliminating parcels as only a small section of the stream ran through the western edge of the downtown ¼ mile buffer. The location, area, and price factors had the largest impact on deciding which parcels were suitable. I’m sure in other locations along the SMART route the different factors will rotate in relevancy. My final parcel was located at 122 Mill Street which is currently a commercial building. The parcel met all of my requirements which included being 60,000 square ft, and its estimated cost was $2,578,000 according to the city of Healdsburg in 2009. This parcel which is located directly in between the proposed train station and the downtown Healdsburg shopping district will be perfect for developing a transit oriented, mixed use, living complex where people can live, work and shop within close proximity.
Conclusion
The processes used in this example could be implemented for the remaining 13 SMART station locations to locate similar developable parcels. In this way throughout Sonoma and Marin County each downtown area could equip itself with high density transit oriented living spaces. By seeking only parcels that meet the requirements for development this method can insure the success of the projects that locate in these areas. Location and proximity are extremely powerful factors in this type of development plan and require a precise analysis to ensure success. This plan when implemented correctly can alter the urban landscape in a positive way by changing how people move throughout the urban landscape. In turn, having more people using the public transit system would also have positive impacts on the main 101 freeway system which is often overcrowded with cars. The potential for investors to locate ideal developable sites within each of these communities creates great financial opportunities while at the same time creating new options for those who would rather break the ties with their automobile. All in all the new demand for transit oriented living spaces is going to create a demand for developable parcels near transit hubs and finding lucrative parcels is going to be dependent upon the strict limitations that are set by potential investors, which in this case is me.
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| Parcel selection within the .25 mile train station buffer |
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| Final Parcel Map |
