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The Best Laid Plans for TOD, Stalled

Posted by: Tim Halbur

22 June 2009 - 9:00am

Planners in New Jersey developed ambitious plans for transit-oriented development along their rail corridors, but with the struggling housing market and poor economy, developers aren't showing up or have halted projects in the works.

The state's Transit Village program is responsible for a number of brand-new neighborhoods along the rail system, including developments in Jersey City, Morristown, New Brunswick and Rahway. But even with state-funded upgrades to the rail system, progress has stalled.

"[I]n Somerville, work continues on a $153 million upgrade to the Raritan Valley Line train station, but redevelopment of a huge former landfill beside it as a potential Transit Village is one of two stalled projects.

'In today’s market, developers won’t just show up,' said Colin Driver, Somerville’s director of economic development. 'We made a two-year study, and involved the entire community in creating a great plan for a transit-oriented development — and then the bottom sort of fell out for any kind of development.'"

Full Story: ‘Transit Cities’ Face Roadblocks
Source: The New York Times, June 22, 2009
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But what can planners do to support the kind of connections between people I just described? One idea is promoting mixed-use places where there are simply more opportunities for people to run into each other and connect.
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