New TOD Residents Become Anti-Transit NIMBYs

King Farm, a 440-acre development in the D.C. suburbs, was designed to be the perfect transit-oriented development, with a light rail to be built later. Now, residents have decided they don't want the transit to ever be built.

1 minute read

February 6, 2011, 1:00 PM PST

By Tim Halbur


It seems that even though King Farm was designed with a light rail right-of-way in mind, residents don't see the need for it, preferring to drive their cars. One resident formed the anti-transit group after realizing that the light rail would pass in front of her house, a fact that she claims she was never made aware of.

Kaid Benfield writes:

"...the thing is, we need the transit to make these big suburban developments work for the larger region's traffic and for the environment. King Farm is not an inner suburb. It's about 10 miles beyond the Capital Beltway [...] and 21.6 miles from NRDC's downtown DC office, according to Google Maps. There's a shuttle to the Metro station, another thing the developer did right, but that only helps if you're going where the Red Line goes, basically only south from the station since it's the end of the line.

For those who live, work or shop along its route, the Transitway will not only make it easier to reach the Metro (or to reach King Farm from the Metro) at more times during the day but also run along more of an east-west route, linking its customers to additional centers of employment and activity."

Friday, February 4, 2011 in NRDC Blog

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