S EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and
Opportunities for the City and County of
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ICF Contact: Amy Doll
ICF International
9300 Lee Highway,
Fairfax, VA 22031
Tel (703) 934- 3244
ADoll@icfi.com
Consultant Team
Dena Belzer
Strategic Economics
2991 Shattuck Avenue, #203
Berkeley, CA 94705
Tel (510) 647-5291
dbelzer@strategiceconomics.com
EPA Contact: Adhir Kackar
Smart Growth Program
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (MC 1807T)
Washington, DC 20460
Tel (202) 566-2846
Kackar.Adhir@epa.gov
Jim Charlier
Charlier Associates, Inc.
2511 31st Street
Boulder, Colorado 80301
Tel (303)543-7277
jfc@charlier.org
Denver Contact: Crissy Fanganello
Department, of Public Works
201 W. Colfax Avenue, Dept. 509
Denver, CO 80202
Tel (720) 865-3026
crissy.fanganello@denvergov.org
Niko Letunic
Eisen I Letunic
304 !/2 Lily Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel (415) 552.2468
niko@eisenletunic.com
Tim Van Meter
VMWP Denver
1529 Market Street
Denver, CO 80202
Tel (303)298-1480
tim@vmwp.com
Rick Williams
VMWP San Francisco
18 De Boom Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Tel (415)974-5352
rick@vmwp.com
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Table of Contents
Chapters
Executive Summary iii
1. Introduction 1
Background 1
Living Streets Workshop 2
About this Report 3
2. What Are Living Streets? 4
Benefits of Living Streets 6
Transportation Choice 6
Environment and Public Health 6
Safe, Vibrant and Convenient Neighborhoods 6
Economic Resilience 7
3. Case study: the Fulcrum 8
Existing Conditions 8
Market Observations 9
Development Patterns 10
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | i
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Creating Living Streets in the Fulcrum and Denver 12
Reduce the number of lanes dedicated to moving cars 13
Create a pedestrian-and transit friendly streetscape 17
Relate development to the street 18
4. Implementation Strategies 22
Short term actions 23
Pass a living streets policy 23
Task the Living Streets Initiative team to coordinate implementation of the Living Streets Initiative 23
Address density and traffic congestion head on 23
Medium term actions 24
Build a demonstration project 24
Develop a living streets implementation strategy 24
Explore long term funding sources 25
Develop specific area plans for living streets corridors 26
Lxempt living streets from level of service requirements 26
Integrate living streets into existing streets related programs 26
Adopt supportive planning, zoning and subdivision regulations 27
5. Conclusion 29
Endnotes 30
Appendices
A. EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program and Denver Site Visit
B. Street Design Resources
C. Living Street Case Studies
D. Suggestions for Improving Bus Service
E. Living Street Funding Sources
ii | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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The city of Denver is growing. During the
last few decades, the city has seen
tremendous progress. The regional
economy has expanded, bringing new
jobs, residents, and a civic identity that
makes Denverites confident about
themselves, the future, and the role of the
city as a national and global leader.
A contributing factor to this growth has
been the commitment of city and regional
leaders to pursue policies and actions that
promote smart, progressive, and
sustainable ways to grow and develop.
The region includes many notable
examples of smart growth projects and
approaches, such as the 16th Street Mall,
and the redevelopment of Stapleton
Airport, Lowry Air Force Base, Elitch
Gardens, and the Villa Italia Mall.
In addition to these nationally recognized
projects, the city and region have made
investments, such as FasTracks, and
passed policies including Blueprint Denver,
Greenprint Denver, and the Strategic
Transportation Plan, that are guiding
growth in a sustainable and cost effective
way.
The next frontier for growth in Denver
region is the retrofitting of commercial and
business corridors. These corridors, such
as Federal Boulevard and Leetsdale Drive,
are vital regional economic engines. They
are also major thoroughfares that help
move people and goods across the region.
According to the Strategic Transportation
Plan, these and other commercial corridors
will require new street investments in the
future to meet anticipated travel demand
and create a connected, multi-modal
transportation system.
In 2008, the city launched the Living
Streets Initiative. This initiative is a multi-
jurisdictional effort to shape future street
investments and policies and transform
existing commercial corridors into living
streets-pedestrian oriented, multi-modal
streets that can support a dense, vibrant
mix of shops, offices, and residences.
Transforming commercial corridors into
living streets can provide many benefits
for residents. Living streets are designed to
accommodate a range of transportation
options-driving, walking, bicycling, and
transit and emphasis is on moving people,
not just cars. This helps expand
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Executive Summary
transportation choice and make the city
and region more accessible for everyone
irrespective of age, mobility, or income.
Greater transportation choice can help
reduce people's dependency on the
automobile and increase travel by walking,
bicycling and transit-both key objectives of
the Strategic Transprtaion Plan. Giving
peopel choices besides driving can help
protect air quality, reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, and address public health
concerns such as childhood asthma and
obesity.
A living streets approach supports
investment in existing neighborhoods and
helps bring new residents, jobs and
businesses back to more centrally located
or established city neighborhoods.
Directing development to existing
neighborhoods maximizes past
investments in infrastructure and can help
to keep future infrastructure costs in
check. It gives new and existing residents
more housing options that they can afford
closer to employment centers.
To help kick off the Living Streets
Initiative, the city hosted a four-day public
workshop to explore how existing
commercial corridors could be redesigned
to become living streets and to identify
policy options to make living streets a
reality in the city.
During the workshop, participants
identified three design principles for
future corridor street investments:
O Reduce the number of travel lanes
dedicated to moving cars to add space for
bus lanes, bike lanes and sidewalks.
© Create a pedestrian and transit friendly
streetscape by widening sidewalks,
providing buffers along the street and
reducing the frequency for curb cuts.
© Relate development to the street by
locating new buildings close to the street
edge and facing building entrances to the
street.
During the workshop, participants
identified next steps that the city could
consider to implement the Living Streets
Initiative. These steps are listed below and
discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4.
• Pass a a living streets policy
• Task the Living Streets Initiative team
to coordinate implementation of the
Living Streets Initiative
• Address density and traffic congestion
head on
• Build a demonstration project
• Develop a living streets
implementation strategy
• Explore long term funding sources
• Develop specific area plans for living
street corridors
• Exempt living streets from level of
service requirements
• Integrate living streets into existing
streets related programs
• Adopt supportive planning, zoning
and subdivision regulations
Creating living streets involves raising
awareness and mobilizing public support;
coordinating planning, investment, and
infrastructure decision-making; and
making tough political and funding
decisions such as increasing densities or
narrowing streets.
Denver is up to this challenge. It has a
tradition of progressive planning and
development, an engaged citizenry, and
forward-thinking leadership. Creating
living streets will provide multiple
benefits for residents and help achieve the
vision of a more sustainable and just
Denver.
iv | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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1 | Introduction
Background
Since 1990, Denver's population has
grown by more than 20 percent, to
approximately 590,000. The five-county
Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical
Area has grown even faster and now
numbers close to 2.5 million people. The
region is anticipating an additional one
million people by 2030.
Growth has brought many benefits to the
city and region. Denver is routinely
identified as one of the best cities in the
country for business, and the economic
success and expansion of the city has
supported growth across the region and
the Front Range.
Figure 1: View of the Denver skyline at night. (Photo
Another defining characteristic of Denver
is the firm commitment of its residents and
leadership to growing in a way that is
smart, sustainable, and cost effective. This
ethic is behind the 2004 passage of
FasTracks, the single largest ($7.9 billion)
public transit expansion in the United
States, and more recently the adoption of
Blueprint Denver, Greenprint Denver and the
courtesy of ICF International)
Strategic Transportation Plan. Collectively
these plans and investments have created
a framework that guides development and
redevelopment efforts in the city to be
efficient, compact, mixed use, sustainable,
and supportive of a multi modal
transportation system.
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Chapter 1
A critical development issue facing the city
and region-one that will determine how
effective the community will be in meeting
development challenges and growing in a
smart, sustainable, and cost effective way-
is the redevelopment of existing
commercial corridors.
In Denver and many other cities,
commercial corridors serve an important
economic and transportation function.
Commercial corridors are where people
shop and where businesses and
employment are located. What makes
these commercial corridors so attractive to
businesses, especially retailers, is the high
volume of traffic that they tend to carry.
Traffic on Denver's commercial corridors
is expected to increase in the future. The
city is expected to add 1.4 million daily
trips to their roads by 2030. ' The Denver
roadway network currently carries 4
million daily person trips. The city faces
the challenge of accommodating future
mobility needs without undermining
community values and while continuing to
grow in a smart, sustainable, and cost-
effective way.
Living Streets Worksh
Denver's city government has launched a
"Living Streets Initiative." The initiative is
a multi-departmental effort to transform
some of Denver's most heavily traveled
commercial corridors into living streets —
that is, streets that are vibrant, attractive,
and pedestrian friendly; have dense,
compact development; and accommodate
a range of transportation options.
In partnership with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
the city sponsored a four-day, public,
living streets workshop from July 30
through August 2, 2008. The objectives of
the workshop were to:
• Illustrate how living streets concepts
could be applied in Denver; and
• Identify suggested implementation
strategies to advance the city's Living
Streets Initiative.
Technical support for the workshop was
provided by a team of national smart
growth experts funded by EPA.
All workshop activities were open to the
public. The team also met with staff and
Figure 2: The living streets workshop brought
together citizens, stakeholders, and national
experts to brainstorm how city streets could
support walking, bicycling, transit, and
driving. (Photo courtesy of EPA)
elected officials from Denver and
neighboring jurisdictions, transportation
planners, and traffic engineers, budget and
finance officials, planning staff, and
commissioners, and members of the
Downtown Denver Partnership and the
Cherry Creek North Business
Improvement District.
The workshop focused on the "Fulcrum"
portion of the Downtown-Cherry Creek
(DCC) corridor. This section stretches
between University Boulevard on the west
and Quebec Street on the east. Major roads
within this area are First Avenue, Steele
2 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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Introduction
Street, Cherry Creek North Drive, East
Alameda Avenue, and Leetsdale Drive.
This area was chosen as a focus of the
workshop because it includes many
characteristics of other commercial
corridors in the city and region. It is also a
useful lens to understand broader city and
region-wide issues associated with turning
commercial corridors into living streets.
During the workshop, the team heard
from many community residents. Overall,
residents do not have a favorable
impression of streets in the Fulcrum,
noting that:
• The streets are too wide, with fast,
heavy, noisy traffic.
• Buildings and the landscape are
designed for automobile access, not for
pedestrians.
• The streetscape is unattractive,
monotonous, and uninspiring; it looks
like "Anywhere, USA," with nothing
special about it.
• Streets are uninviting and unsafe for
pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Transit service should be improved,
both for commuters and for the local
circulation and access needed within
the corridor.
• Due to the lack of safe, convenient
mobility options, people have little
choice but to drive, even for short
trips.
• Destinations are so spread out that
walking and bicycling are discouraged
by the inherent distances.
• Streets lack community gathering
places.
• Future street improvements should
make it easier for seniors, children,
those with disabilities, and lower-
income individuals to move around
the corridor without a car.
Appendix A includes further details on the
workshop, including a schedule of
activities and a list of participants.
About this report
This report summarizes the workshop
results and is meant to give the city some
ideas to consider as it continues its Living
Streets Initiative. This report can also help
the general public learn more about living
street concepts and implementation
approaches.
Chapter 2 outlines the key characteristics
and benefits of living streets. Chapter 3
illustrates how living streets concepts
could be applied to the Fulcrum. Chapter 4
outlines implementation strategies to
advance Denver's Living Streets Initiative,
and Chapter 5 offers some concluding
thoughts.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 3
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2 | What Are Living Streets?
Living streets are designed to
accommodate a range of transportation
options-driving, walking, bicycling, and
transit-and emphasize moving people, not
just cars. They are active public spaces
that serve the needs of all community
residents, irrespective of age, income, or
disability. Because they are public spaces
and public investments, living streets add
value to adjacent properties, maximize
public investment and benefit, and
provide places like shops, parks, and
plazas for people to congregate.
Living streets accommodate a range of
transportation options. They feature well-
designed sidewalks and crosswalks and,
where appropriate, include dedicated bike
lanes, on-street parking, and transit lanes.
Figure 3: This visualization of East 14th Street in San Leandro, California, shows many of the
elements of a living street. (Photo courtesy of Urban Advantage and Community Design
+Architecture)
4 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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Case Study: The Fulcrum
Living streets balance the needs of
pedestrians and bicyclists with the needs
of drivers and transit users. They may
devote less space to vehicular movement
because narrowing vehicle lanes helps to
moderate traffic speeds and reduce
pedestrian crossing distances. Slowing
down traffic makes bicycling safer, even if
bike lanes are not present, and makes
pedestrians feel less threatened by traffic
as they walk along the street. This is
particularly important in mixed-use and
commercial locations where destinations
often line both sides of the street and
walking is frequent. Additional features
that help to make crossings safer and calm
traffic include medians, pedestrian refuge
islands, and bulb-outs. Bulb-outs occur
when a portion of the sidewalk or the curb
is extended into the street at intersections
or mid-block, shortening crossing
distances and calming traffic.
Traffic speeds and volumes are also
affected by the layout of the street
network. Street networks that support
living streets are well connected with
frequent intersections and short blocks. A
well-connected street network disperses
traffic and provides multiple routes for
cars, buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Living streets have streetscapes, i.e. the
area between the street and the building
that are attractive and inviting to
pedestrians. Sidewalks are wide and street
trees are common. Pedestrians are
separated from moving traffic by planting
strips or on-street parking. Street lights
and signs are sized and placed for
pedestrians- not cars, and there are plazas,
fountains, and other outdoor public spaces
where people can congregate.
Additionally, living streets may integrate
elements designed to capture and treat
stormwater. Landscaping, permeable
paving, planters, and other "softscaping"
techniques reduce the volume and rate of
stormwater runoff, manage stormwater
onsite for improved water quality, and
create a more visually pleasing streetscape.
Living streets support compact, mixed-use
development, which combines residential,
office, retail, and other compatible
activities. Compact, mixed-use
development is typically concentrated at
major street intersections, which creates a
series of activity nodes along the length of
the corridor. Between the nodes, land use
types can vary and can include residential,
retail, office, and civic uses.
Figure 4: The streetscape and adjacent land uses on
living streets support activity on the street. (Photo
courtesy of Charlier and Associates)
Mixing uses puts homes, work and shops
within walking distance of each other. This
means more people and more activity
along the street.
Compact, mixed-use development
improves transportation choice by making
it easier for people to walk or bike to get
around. Dense development supports
transit service by providing the ridership
needed to make bus and rail transit a
viable and competitive option.
On living streets, buildings are often
multiple stories with closely-spaced
entrances and a high percentage of the
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 5
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Chapter
street wall is comprised of windows.
Buildings along the street form a
continuous street wall and are located
close to the front lot line, with no parking
between the sidewalk and the building.
Appendix B includes a list of
organizations, websites and books that
discuss the design of living streets.
Benefits of Living Streets
Living streets offer many benefits. Living
streets increase transportation choices
giving people more ways to get around.
Providing alternatives to the car helps
protect the environment and can make it
easier for people to have an active, healthy
lifestyle. Living streets are lively places
and can contribute to safe, vibrant
neighborhoods. Creating living streets
often supports greater housing choices and
directs resources and investment to
established neighborhoods.
Transportation Choice
Living streets are multimodal- that is, they
support multiple ways to get around,
including walking, bicycling, transit, and
driving. These transportaion options
make the city more accessible for people of
all ages and abilities, including people
who are not able, cannot afford, or
otherwise do not want to drive. This is
especially important to children, the
elderly, and disabled or low-income
people.
Living streets often support higher-
density, mixed-use development that
places residents closer to goods, services,
jobs, and each other and can make it
possible for people to meet some of their
daily needs by walking or bicycling.
Environment and Public Health
Increasing transportation choices makes it
possible and convienient for people to
choose alternatives to driving. This helps
reduce dependency on the automobile,
protect air and water quality and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Increasing transportation choice can also
help communites address public health
concerns such as childhood asthma. Air
pollution is a leading cause of asthma and
other respiratory diseases among urban
residents, particularly among children.
Increasing transportaion options can help
to reduce exposure to air pollution.
The lack of safe walking and bicycling
environments in many communities
Figure 5: Living streets are designed to make it
easier for all community residents to move around.
(Photo courtesy of Community Design +
Architecture)
discourages people from engaging in
routine physical activity. Living streets
create safe and convenient places for
walking and bicycling, allowing people to
integrate physical activity into their daily
routine. The lack of physical activity
contributes to obesity and other chronic
health problems, such as diabetis and
heart disease. Studies show that routine
physical activity can help reduce obesity
and associated health risks."
6 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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Case Study: The Fulcrum
Safe, Vibrant and Convenient
Neighborhoods
Living streets create areas that attract
people. They feature wide, pleasant,
shaded sidewalks, plazas, and other public
spaces that encourage people to stroll,
stop, sit, or gather. People feel
comfortable because they are not
confronted with excessive traffic volumes,
speeds, noise, and pollution.
Living streets also possess the "critical
mass" of people that gives good urban
places their vibrancy. A mix of people and
land uses means that streets are active
throughout the day. More activity on the
street improves security by increasing
"eyes on the street," meaning that more
people are out on the streets deterring
crime simply by being there.
Economic Resilience
A living streets approach directs new
development to existing neighborhoods.
This supports reinvestment in
neighborhoods that may not have
experienced significant growth or
development investment over the years
and helps bring new residents, jobs, and
businesses back to centrally located and
established city neighborhoods.
Directing development to existing
neighborhoods maximizes past
investments in infrastructure and can help
to keep future infrastructure costs in
check. It gives new and existing residents
more housing options they can afford,
closer to employment centers.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 7
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The I
This chapter describes how living street
concepts could be applied to the
"Fulcrum" portion of the Downtown-
Cherry Creek (DCC) corridor. The city of
Denver selected this area to explore
application of living street concepts. For
ease, we refer to this area as "the Fulcrum"
because it is in the middle of the DCC
corridor. However, "the Fulcrum" is not
an official city designation for this area.
This area was chosen because it shares
many characteristics with commercial
corridors throughout the city and region,
and because it is a useful lens to
understand broader city and region-wide
issues associated with turning commercial
corridors into living streets. Many of the
ideas and concepts discussed in this
chapter can apply to the Fulcrum and to
other commercial streets and corridors
throughout the region.
This chapter begins with an overview of
existing conditions within the Fulcrum.
That is followed by a discussion of
planning and design concepts that can
support living streets in the Fulcrum.
Existing Conditic
The Fulcrum is a 3.5-mile segment of the
Downtown-Cherry Creek corridor. It
stretches between University Boulevard on
the west and Quebec Street on the east.
Colorado Boulevard separates the Fulcrum
into distinct east and west portions.
The Fulcrum is an important commuter
route between downtown Denver and
points in the southeastern part of the
region. Arterials within the Fulcrum
include parts of East First Avenue, Steele
Street, Cherry Creek North Drive, East
Alameda Avenue, and Leetsdale Drive.
Like other commercial corridors in
Denver, these arterials are wide, six-lane
streets with fast-moving traffic. The 83L
bus route provides daily service through
the Fulcrum.
Neighborhoods that are part of the
Fulcrum include: Cherry Creek, Hilltop,
Belcaro, Washington-Virginia Vale and the
city of Glendale.
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Major activity centers and landmarks in
the corridor include Cherry Creek
Shopping Center, the Cherry Creek North
neighborhood, the Glendale Super Target
store, George Washington High School,
and South Lowry Square Shopping Center.
Important natural features and open space
resources include the Cherry Creek Trail,
Pulaski Park, and Burns Park.
Market Observations
The Fulcrum is a prominent retail center
for the city and region. Retail rents in the
Cherry Creek area range from $25-$50 per
square foot or higher, while retail rents in
the remainder of the corridor are in the
mid teens and lower $20s. This variability
makes it possible for the corridor to
support a wide range of national retailers,
such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Target and
Safeway and local businesses such as
Vitamin Cottage. National retailers are
largely concentrated in the Cherry Creek
area. Other significant retail nodes in the
Fulcrum are at the intersection of
Leetsdale Drive and Colorado Boulevard,
and at Leetsdale Drive and Quebec Street
Artenals
Hydrology
Parks
*....£ ^"e Fulcrum
Neighborhoods
Figure 6: These maps show the location of the Fulcrum within the Downtown Cherry Creek Corridor and
neighborhoods and arterials within the Fulcrum.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 9
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Within the Fulcrum there are two distinct
development markets. The area west of
Colorado Boulevard, which includes
Cherry Creek Shopping Center, has
experienced significant new and high-end
office, residential, and retail development
in recent years. Most compact, mixed-use
development in the Fulcrum, is gravitating
to this area.
The area east of Colorado Boulevard has
experienced some new development
activity in recent years, mostly new
retailfor instance the opening of Super
Target in 2003 and refurbishment of Lowry
Market.
For the most part, developers currently do
not see this portion of the Fulcrum as a
desirable location for new residential,
office or mixed-use development. One
reason for this is developers' lack of
familiarity with this portion of the corridor
and its development potential. In other
instances, property owners are satisfied
with their revenue and see no reason to
take on the risk of new development.
These trends are likely to continue. New
development, particularly higher-end
office and residential and national
retailers, will likely continue to gravitate to
the Cherry Creek area. The area east of
Colorado Boulevard will continue to
remain a desirable and attractive retail
location, particularly for strip retail and
local businesses, and potentially for retail
that is priced out of the Cherry Creek
market. Current land prices of $30 to $90
per square foot make multi-family
residential development difficult in this
portion of the corridor. Increasing
compact, mixed-use development in this
portion of the corridor will happen slowly
and may require public support or
intervention.
Social equity considerations may arise as
the city tries to increase development
activity on this corridor and potentially
other commercial strips as well. The low
and moderate retail rents on these
corridors, such as Leetsdale Drive, make
them very attractive to small and
neighborhood-serving businesses. Often
these corridors may be the only affordable
places in a community for small businesses
to locate.
New development activity could displace
some existing businesses. The city may
wish to partner with existing businesses to
help them remain in operation while still
Figure 7: The Cherry Creek Shopping
Center is a major economic and
development driver in the Fulcrum.
(Photo Courtesy of US EPA)
allowing new development and
investment to occur.
Development Patterns
The sections of the Fulcrum on either side
of Colorado Boulevard present markedly
different development patterns.
West of Colorado Boulevard
The neighborhoods west of Colorado
Boulevard have a well-connected street
grid with short blocks and frequent
intersections, older homes on small lots,
and a mix of land uses often within
walking distance of each other. Parking for
retail tends to be located in structures,
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particularly at newer developments, or in
surface lots shielded by buildings or
landscaped buffers.
Pedestrian accommodations are good in
this portion of the Fulcrum, particularly
along First Avenue, where medians help
reduce street crossing distances, sidewalks
are slightly wider, street trees buffer
traffic, and the blocks are shorter with
more frequent crosswalks. Additional
pedestrian improvements could enhance
First Avenue, including widening
sidewalks to accommodate more street
activity, such as sidewalk cafes or bus
shelters; providing more mid-block
crossings for better north-south
connections; and allowing on-street
parking. On-street parking would provide
an additional buffer between pedestrians
and traffic and would also provide
additional parking for businesses.
The primary challenge to creating living
streets in this portion of the Fulcrum is
integrating Cherry Creek Shopping Center
into the existing urban pattern. The design
of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center
reflects the retail era when it was built. It is
essentially a suburban shopping center set
in an urban neighborhood. The shopping
center occupies a superblock and is
surrounded by surface parking. Retailers
in Cherry Creek Shopping Center and
adjacent parcels turn their backs to the
street, creating a barrier that disconnects
the area north of First Avenue from the
area south of First Avenue.
Reconnecting Cherry Creek Shopping
Center to its surroundings will likely
involve orienting the shopping center to
First Avenue and filling in gaps in the
street wall. These design concepts, along
with strategies for reconfiguring the street
to accommodate pedestrian-and transit-
friendly features are discussed in greater
detail later in this chapter.
East of Colorado Boulevard
The area east of Colorado Boulevard is less
intensely developed and has a more
suburban and automobile-oriented feel.
The street grid is incomplete or
discontinuous, particularly east of Monaco
Parkway; there are several superblocks
and few connections across Leetsdale
Drive.
Primary land uses include drive-through
retail, gas stations, small strip malls, "big
box" retail stores, and large parking lots.
Retail activity is concentrated at
intersections, particularly where Leetsdale
fl I
Figure 8: The intersection of First Avenue
and Detroit includes wide sidewalks, cross
walks, and street trees that make walking
and bicycling safe and more convenient.
(Photo courtesy of EPA)
Drive crosses a major north/south street,
such as Colorado Boulevard or Quebec
Street.
Land uses are segregated and separated
from each other by large distances.
Buildings are low rise and are set far back
from the street, with large parking areas in
front. This makes walking difficult and
unpleasant. Additionally, street signs are
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 11
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over-sized, designed to capture the
attention of passing motorists, and street
lights are designed to illuminate the
roadway, not the sidewalks.
Along Alameda Avenue and Leetsdale
Drive, sidewalks are typically narrow or
non-existent; there are few, if any, street
trees; there is little separation between the
sidewalk and the street; pedestrians walk,
and transit riders wait, next to fast-moving
traffic; and driveway curb cuts are
frequent and wide. Not surprisingly, foot
traffic is light.
There are few bike accommodations in this
area. Arterials do not have bike lanes. In
general, community residents want to
make bicycling easier and safer in this part
of the Fulcrum and improve connections
between bicycle paths, trails, and lanes,
and between trails, bike lanes, and
neighborhood destinations.
Adding bike lanes on Alameda Avenue or
Leetsdale Drive would make bicycling
safer and more convenient. The lanes
would increase access to shops and
destinations in the eastern portion of the
Fulcrum. Because of existing traffic speed
and volume along Alameda Avenue and
Leetsdale Drive, adding bike lanes to those
arterials could occur in conjunction with
efforts to calm traffic.
Given current market conditions and
development patterns, creating living
streets in this portion of the Fulcrum will
likely take longer than it would to create
living streets in areas where the existing
development pattern is more urban, such
as along First Avenue.
However, this does not mean that it is not
possible to begin to transform car-oriented
arterials such as Leetsdale Drive into
living streets. Many of the same design
approaches that can make First Avenue a
living street also apply to Leetsdale Drive
and other similar commercial streets in the
region.
Creating Living Streets in
the Fulcrum and Dem
The Strategic Transportation Plan lays out
key objectives for Denver's transportation
system, including expanding
transportation options and reorienting the
city's roads to moving people as opposed
to only moving cars. It also affirms the
city's commitment to creating streets that
support and balance transit, walking,
Figure 9: Narrow sidewalks along Leetsdale
Drive result in signs, bus stops or utility poles
in the middle of the sidewalk (Photo courtesy
of EPA)
bicycling, and cars as ways for people to
move around.
This section describes three planning and
design strategies that can help transform
the city's arterial and commercial corridors
into multimodal and living streets:
1) Reduce the number of lanes dedicated
to moving cars;
2) Create a pedestrian and transit friendly
streetscape; and
3) Relate development to the street.
12 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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O Reduce the number of lanes
dedicated to moving cars
Many communities are creating more
multimodal streets by replacing travel
lanes in existing arterials with dedicated
transit lanes, bike lanes, wider sidewalks,
or on-street parking.
For instance, Arlington County, Virginia
launched a multi-year effort in 2002 to
retrofit Columbia Pike-a 3.5-mile auto-
oriented retail strip-into a community
main street that supports walking,
bicycling, and transit. As part of this effort,
the county adopted a form-based code for
the corridor and updated street cross
sections for the corridor, iii
Appendix B provides more detail on the
Columbia Pike effort and similar efforts in
the U.S. including Palo Alto, California (El
Camino Real), and Boulder, Colorado
(28th Street), to create multimodal streets
and commercial corridors.
The city could pursue a similar approach
along arterials both citywide and in the
Fulcrum. Many of the city's arterials have
greater than four travel lanes. The city
could replace some of those travel lanes
with street improvements that better
support transit, walking, and bicycling,
while continuing to move cars. Doing so
will expand transportation options,
support redevelopment, and is consistent
with the city's goal of maximizing people
movement throughout the city.
Figures 10 through 13 illustrate several
potential ways in which removing travel
lanes could help create multimodal and
living streets in the Fulcrum. These are
preliminary ideas and require further
study by the city before they could be
implemented. They are not final
recommendations or proposed designs.
Figure 10 shows one possible approach to
narrowing First Avenue. Currently, First
Avenue has six travel lanes. In this
example, the avenue is reduced to four
lanes: two 10 foot through lanes in each
direction, a left-turn pocket, and a
landscaped median.
Removing two lanes makes it possible to
widen the sidewalk and add on-street
parking (the parking lane is 2 to 3 feet
narrower than a traffic lane). Fewer and
narrower travel lanes and median keep
crossing distances reasonable. Additional
street improvements that could support
walking include: enhanced crosswalks (for
example, with special paving and gateway
elements) and changing signal timing to
increase crossing time for pedestrians.
Along First Avenue, enhanced pedestrian
crossings could be particularly useful at
University, Clayton and Fillmore Streets.
Widening sidewalks helps retailers by
providing space for outdoor seating and
encouraging people to walk along the
street. Wider sidewalks can also
accommodate landscaping, street trees,
and bus shelters.
-------
* L -V L ~«£u^ I * . 1 t
l*-»t' * fo'^n1 * T5^ W-'i MT^fi
L
Figure 10: This cross section illustrates how the city could widen sidewalks, provide on-street parking, and support streets that balance travel modes.
Bus shelters and other amenities that
transit riders value, such as attractive
landscaping or vending machines, can
make riding transit more convenient and
enjoyable (additional suggestions for
improving bus transit in the Fulcrum are
discussed in Appendix C).
This cross section does not include on-
street bike lanes because the Cherry Creek
Trail is nearby, and because on-street
parking is more appropriate here given the
concentration of stores along First Avenue.
However, bike safety could be improved
by moderating traffic speeds along First
Avenue and increasing north-south
connections into the Cherry Creek
shopping district. This could be done by
opening Clayton Lane as a public street
and extending it south across Cherry
Creek as a bike and pedestrian bridge.
This cross section also does not include
separate bus lanes. Many of the city's
arterials, including those in the Fulcrum,
are designated in Blueprint Denver as
enhanced transit corridors- locations
where the city would like to see increased
bus service. A dedicated bus lane along
First Avenue or other arterials could allow
buses to move more freely, and support
more frequent bus service.
The street right of way in the Fulcrum
varies from 68 to 150 feet. Narrow streets
make it difficult to accommodate all of the
desired elements of a multi-modal street.
However, narrow arterials can be
improved for walking and bicycling.
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Figures 11 and 12 illustrate two potential
ways to integrate bicycle lanes and wider
sidewalks into narrow arterials. The cross
sections are based on a segment of
Leetsdale Drive that is currently a four-
lane, undivided arterial with a 68-foot
right of way.
Figure 11 shows a cross section with one
travel lane in each direction and a two-
way center turn lane. Removing two travel
lanes (one in each direction) makes it
possible to add wider sidewalks and bike
lanes in each direction. The sidewalk is 12
feet wide, with an 8 foot-wide walkway
and a 4 foot-wide strip for street trees.
Figure 12 shows a different cross section
for the same 68-foot-wide arterial. It
includes four travel lanes, a 4 foot-wide
median, and 12-foot-wide sidewalks.
Because of the constrained right of way,
it's difficult to have four travel lanes and
on-street parking or bike lanes.
This cross section is more auto-oriented
than the one in Figure 11. However, it does
have some features that support walking.
Keeping the travel lanes to 10 feet keeps
crossing distances across the street
manageable for pedestrians and also helps
to moderate traffic speeds.
Figure 11: Removing one travel lane makes it possible to widen sidewalks
and add bike lanes on this 68-foot wide street.
Figure 12: Reducing lane width makes it possible to narrow the street without
removing a travel lane.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 15
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Twelve-foot-wide sidewalks and trees help
buffer pedestrians from street traffic. The
center median gives pedestrians a refuge
and is a visual cue that helps to calm
traffic.
Figure 13 is a cross section for a 78-foot
right of way. It has four travel lanes and a
12 foot-wide sidewalk on both sides of the
street. The additional 10 feet of right of
way provides enough space for a bike lane
or on-street parking on each side of the
street. If on-street parking were provided,
then bike lanes could be offered on parallel
or perpendicular streets.
Impact of reducing travel lanes on traffic
congestion
Reducing the number of traffic lanes on
arterials may increase traffic congestion in
the short term. This increase can be
mitigated through strategies such as access
management, the addition of medians and
left-hand turn pockets, or synchronizing
traffic signals. However, these strategies
may not be sufficient to stop or reverse
traffic congestion over the long term.
This does not have to deter the city from
pursuing living streets. The experience of
Figure 13: The wider the existing street, the easier it is to integrate features that
support walking and bicycling. The additional 10 feet of right of way makes it
possible to accommodate four travel lanes and a lane for parking or bikes.
other cities has shown that over time,
traffic volumes adjust to capacity because
as congestion increases people revise their
travel behavior. Some shift to transit,
walking, biking, carpooling, or
telecommuting. Others choose to travel at
less busy times or on other routes, or to
make fewer trips altogether. Still others
may choose to live closer to their jobs or
take jobs closer to home.
Living streets, especially when they
include transit, assist in this process by
making it easier for people to use other
modes of transportation. Living streets
might carry fewer vehicles, but they often
carry more people.
An example of this is found in Arlington
County, Virginia, along the Rosslyn-
Ballston transit corridor. The main street in
16 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
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this transit corridor, Wilson Boulevard, has
seen minimal increases in traffic during
the past 25 years because of the county's
explicit effort to increase mixed-use
development activity around the four rail
stations in this corridor, along with
investments in pedestrian and bike
infrastructure. In 1980 the traffic count
along Wilson Boulevard was around
15,000 vehicles; in 2004, it was 15,795. The
count on nearby Washington Boulevard
actually decreased from 20,000 in 1980 to
17,230 in 2004 because of efforts to increase
development and promote walking and
bicycling along that street. Overall, fewer
than half of the residents in the Rosslyn-to-
Ballston corridor drive to work. Thirty-
nine percent use public transportation and
over ten percent walk or bicycle."
© Create a pedestrian-and
transit-friendly streetscape
Most of the arterials in the Fulcrum are not
pleasant places to walk, with narrow
sidewalks; little or no buffer between
sidewalks and moving cars, and frequent
curb cuts.
The streetscape in the Fulcrum could be
improved to make walking more
convenient and safe by:
Figure 14: Concentrating development around
transit and creating streets that support walking
and bicycling have made it possible for Arlington
County, Virginia, to accommodate new
development and jobs without significant
increases in traffic congestion. (Photo courtesy of
Arlington County, VA)
1) widening the streetscape;
2) creating a buffer between the sidewalk
and the street; and
3) reducing the frequency of curb cuts.
Widen the streetscape
Throughout most of the Fulcrum, the
streetscape could be expanded to 12 feet.
This would support an 8 foot wide
sidewalk, wide enough for people to
comfortably walk side-by-side in both
directions, a 4 foot-wide furnishing zone
for landscaping or trees that can help
buffer pedestrians from the street.
Widening the streetscape to 12 feet could
also provide room (up to two feet) to set
buildings close to the sidewalk to create a
pleasant sense of enclosure for
pedestrians.
In retail and mixed-use areas where more
people will walk sidewalks can be wider.
For instance, along storefront districts in
the corridor, sidewalks of 12 to 16 feet
wide are appropriate. In areas where
outdoor seating, landscaping, and/or bus
shelters are desired, wider sidewalks up to
30 feet are appropriate.
Provide a buffer between the sidewalk and
the street
Separating or buffering sidewalks from the
street is needed to transforming arterials in
the Fulcrum and throughout Denver into
living streets. Separation would help
buffer pedestrians from traffic and calm
traffic. Appropriate buffers include
landscaping, street trees, bike lanes, or on-
street parking.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 17
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Figure 15: Reducing the number of lanes devoted to moving cars makes it possible to widen
sidewalks, move buildings toward the street edge and add bike lanes
Reduce frequency of curb cuts
Curb cuts provide access to parking lots
along a street. However, too many curb
cuts along a block create interruptions that
can frustrate pedestrians and put them at
risk from cars entering or exiting the
parking lots. Consolidating driveways
requires balancing the needs of
pedestrians, landowners, and drivers.
One approach to reducing the frequency of
driveways while still providing access is to
support connected street networks that
have short blocks and frequent
intersections. Frequent intersections allow
drivers to turn at an intersection and then
access a building at the rear or side of the
lot instead of from the main road. Shifting
access from the arterial street front to the
side or rear maintains a continuous
sidewalk for the length of a block.
Additionally, consolidating turns at
intersections is safer for pedestrians.
© Relate development to the
street
Orienting development toward the street,
filling in parking lots and other gaps in the
street wall can create a safer, more
pleasant, and livelier streetscape. To
illustrate these points we look at two
Fulcrum locations: Cherry Creek Shopping
Center and the intersection of Leetsdale
Drive and Quebec Street.
THE BENEFITS OF STREET TREEES
Street trees confer many benefits to
people, abutting properties and the street
itself. These include:
o Visually narrowing the street which
prompts drivers to slow down;
o Shade and lower surface and air
temperatures;
o Higher and more stable property
values;
o Improved pedestrian environment,
encouraging more walking;
o Improved air quality, especially
reduced levels of localized ozone;
o Screening of unsightly roadway
elements (power poles, etc.); and
o Protection from direct UV rays which
can extend the life of asphalt
pavement and reduce resurfacing
costs.
For more information on the costs and
benefits of street trees, see US EPA's
webpage on Strategies for Mitigation of
Urban Heat Island Effect
(http://www.epa.gov/heatisland/mitigatio
n/trees.htm)
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Cherry Creek Shopping Center
The Cherry Creek Shopping Center is the
prime development opportunity in the
Fulcrum. This area is likely to see new
development activity in the future. The
city can shape development in this area to
support a more vibrant street.
Cherry Creek Shopping Center is
characteristic of the development pattern
that is found on many arterials in the
region. Buildings are set back far from the
street in this case, (First Avenue), and
parking lots rather than buildings face the
street. This kind of environment
discourages activity on the street.
One solution would be to fill in the
parking lots along the arterials with new
compact, mixed-use development. These
new shops, offices, or homes would bring
people to the streets.
Figure 16 illustrates potential locations for
new development at Cherry Creek
Shopping Center. This conceptual
drawing was developed without input
from mall owners or tenants. It is provided
for illustration only.
New development could be located on
existing parking lots throughout the site.
Figure 16: This sketch illustrates one possible way in which Cherry Creek Shopping Center
could be redeveloped over time to support more compact, mixed-use development and fit in
better with the surrounding neighborhood
New buildings could go along First
Avenue and Steele Street and behind the
shopping center across from Cherry Creek
Trail, with a new building at the
intersection of First Avenue and
University Boulevard.
New buildings would be five to six stories,
which is the height of existing
development in the area, particularly
Cherry Creek North. This would make the
buildings on both sides of First Avenue
symmetrical and would frame the street.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 19
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Parking could be provided through
interior parking structures.
A new building at the intersection of First
Avenue and University Boulevard could
help define the entry to the shopping
district. Orienting this building toward the
street and close to the corner can help
complete the street wall on the north side
of First Avenue.
Filling in the parking lots with new
development helps to create a continuous
street wall, which frames the street,
improves pedestrian safety by increasing
the number of eyes on the street and livens
the street.
Figure 17 illustrates how new
development could improve the existing
streetscape along First Avenue and
support a living street. As shown in the
top image, First Avenue is not as active or
inviting a street as it could be. It's lined
largely with parking lots, the buildings
that are near the sidewalk face away from
it, and pedestrians are not well protected
from the fast- moving traffic along the
street. Elements that support walking in
this portion of First Avenue include a
continuous sidewalk and landscaping.
Figure 17: These images illustrate the potential
difference in street activity that could result if
sidewalks along First Avenue were widened, and
buildings moved closer to the sidewalk
The image on the bottom of Figure 17
shows how filling in parking and,
widening the sidewalk could enliven the
street and make it more appealing.
Outdoor seating and a wider sidewalk
make sense because of Cherry Creek
Shopping Center and the area will attract
new retail and mixed-use development.
Leetsdale Drive and Quebec Street
The Fulcrum offers redevelopment
opportunities at high-traffic, high-profile
intersections, such as Alameda Avenue
and Colorado Boulevard, Alameda
Avenue and Leetsdale Drive, and
Leetsdale Drive and Quebec Street. Figure
18 illustrates how new development at the
intersection of Leetsdale Drive and Quebec
Street could help create living street. The
Lowry Marketplace is currently located at
this intersection.
Figure 18: Orienting development toward the
street at the intersection of Leetsdale Drive and
Quebec Street.
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The parking lots that front Leetsdale Drive
could be filled in with new development
to hide surface parking and create a more
continuous street wall. Orienting these
buildings to the street helps frame the
street and provides a greater street
presence for the Lowry Marketplace
Across Leetsdale Drive, the existing
apartment complex could be reconfigured
to accommodate more housing and to
more effectively frame the street for
example by increasing the building heights
to three and four stories, shifting housing
toward the front of the site to orient to the
street, and relocating parking to the rear of
the lot. Moving the apartments toward the
street and orienting them toward the
corner helps engage the street. Interior
courtyards could provide private open
space for residents.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 21
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This section presents strategies the city
could consider to implement the Living
Streets Initiative. These approaches are not
exclusive to Denver; issues related to
living streets are similar throughout the
country.
The city of Denver has already taken some
important steps to creating living streets,
including the passage of Blueprint Denver
and the Strategic Transportation Plan, and
establishing an inter-departmental Living
Streets Initiative and a region-wide Living
Streets Task Force.
The Living Streets Initiative team can help
break down silos among city agencies and
better coordinate land use and
transportation decisions. This
coordination can help make sure that land
use decisions reinforce transportation
goals such as multimodal streets, and vice
versa.
The task force could facilitate a metro-
wide discussion about living streets and
engage public, private, and non-profit
stakeholders. Having such a coalition is
helpful since implementing living streets
often requires multi-jurisdictional
coordination.
Another important and beneficial action
that the city has already taken is its public
outreach effort around living streets.
Outreach is essential to raising awareness
about living streets and how they will
affect city residents, involve citizens in
decision-making; and build public support
for the policy changes and actions needed
to create living streets.
The city could consider additional
strategies to strengthen its support for
living streets. This chapter discusses ten
possible implementation strategies. The
strategies are divided into short and
medium term actions. Short term actions
can be implemented within twelve
months; medium term actions will take
one to three years to implement. The
actions are not listed sequentially and
many could be implemented
simultaneously.
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Short-term actions (0-12
months)
Pass a living streets policy
A city council resolution could help to
articulate the public's goals and objective's
for living street corridors, and signal to
city staff, the development community,
and other stakeholders of the city's intent
to transform commercial corridors into
vibrant, multimodal, public places. A
resolution could help empower city staff to
immediately begin integrating living
streets considerations into planning,
zoning, and street investment decsions.
Task the Living Streets Initiative team
to coordinate implementation of the
Living Streets Initiative
The city may want to task the city's Living
Streets Initiative team, at least on a part-
time basis, with implementing the Living
Streets Initiative. Living Streets Initiative
team includes employees from the
Community Planning and Development,
Public Works, Environmental Health,
Parks and Recreation, Economic
Development, Human Rights and
Community Relations and Budget
Management Departments; and
Greenprint Denver.
The team could review and comment on
proposed plans and projects by their own
and other agencies, coordinate
infrastructure investments and public
finance, coordinate with surrounding cities
and counties, and serve as the city's
clearinghouse of information on living
streets.
The team leader could report directly to
the mayor, or management responsibility
could be rotated among the planning and
public works departments. It is
important, however, that team members
remain stationed at their respective
agencies, as this will increase the
participation and contribution of those
agencies in the Living Streets Initiative.
Address density and traffic congestion
head-on
As part of the Living Streets Initiative, the
city has developed an extensive public
education and outreach campaign. The
campaign could give special attention,
perhaps through the Living Streets lecture
series, to two particularly contentious
issues that arise in discussions of living
streets.
The first issue is opposition to density, or
the belief that compact, higher-density
development is incompatible with
established neighborhoods. One tool that
has been particularly helpful in other
communities is the visual preference
survey. This powerful technique uses
pictures of various built environments to
assess the public's preferences. This can
be an eye-opening experience for the
public, since almost invariably people
prefer denser, compact environments,
provided that they are well designed.
Additionally, the campaign could use case
studies of existing living streets and or
images of conceptual ones, such as those
prepared for the city by Urban Advantage,
to demonstrate the possibilities and
outcomes associated with living streets.
The second issue is traffic congestion.
Generally, living streets approaches will
give most people more mobility across the
system however when traffic lanes are
removed it might degrade conditions for
motorists at certain intersections, on
certain corridors, or at certain times of the
day. Not discussing this issue openly
could make the Living Streets Initiative
lose credibility. Other communities have
been successful at discussing traffic
congestion when discussion has focused
on the reasons why traffic congestion on
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 23
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Chapter 4
living streets rarely materializes as people
fear and the benefits of living streets.
Medium-term actions (1-3
Build a demonstration project
One of the barriers to creating living
streets implementation is unfamiliarity
with their design and benefits. A
demonstration project could further
community dialogue on living streets,
inform the public and decision-makers,
and allow city staff to practice planning,
designing and building living streets.
Additionally, it could be a concrete
demonstration of the city's commitment to
the Living Streets Initiative.
The demonstration project should be at
least a few blocks long. It should
incorporate the streetscape elements found
on living streets, such as improved
sidewalks, safe crosswalks, street trees and
other landscaping, special paving, bulb-
outs, and street lamps that illuminate the
sidewalk.
To build a demonstration project within
one to two years, the city could focus on a
street segment that already exhibits many
living street characteristics, except for
attractive streetscaping or that is poised
for redevelopment.
Develop a living streets
implementation strategy
Implementing living streets will likely be a
multi-year process and involve
coordination of policies and investments
across city agencies. A living streets
implementation strategy could support a
more systematic approach to
implementing living streets.
Components of a strategy could include:
A list of designated living street corridors
Designating corridors as living streets can
indicate to the public and the development
community the city's intent to reorient
these corridors and streets to moving
people rather than cars. It can also help
ground discussions of living streets in real
places and give the public something more
concrete to respond to as they are engaged
in discusisons about living streets.
The city could apply the living streets
designation to corridors or streets that are
expected to grow in population,
employment, and trips, and that also have
market demand for development. The
designation could apply to whole
corridors (for example the whole
Downtown Cherry Creek-Corridor) or to
streets within a particular corridor (for
example, First Avenue).
The city has already designated some
corridors within the city as living streets.
The city may consider modifying the list of
designated living street based on the
criteria identified in the previous
paragraph.
Prioritizing living street corridors
Once identified, streets designated as
living streets can be prioritized for
implementation. Factors to consider in
prioritization include the types of
destinations along the corridor that
already generate traffic, the amount of
existing market activity, the presence of
development sites and opportunities, and
the opportunity for public investments
including enhanced transit and better
multimodal facilities that can catalyze
development. Prioritizing investments in
corridors and streets that exhibit these
characteristics can produce short-term
wins and improvements that could help
galvanize further support for the living
streets effort.
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Guiding principles for living streets
The strategy could inlcude principles for
living streets, that define the desired
characteristics and functions. Potential
principles include:
1) multi-modal streets that emphasize
moving people;
2) increased transit;
3) pedestrian-and transit-friendly
streetscape; and
4) private development that relates to the
street.
These principles could further public and
community understanding of living
streets, and inform future revisons to city
development regulations, street standards
and capital investments.
Analysis of the potential impacts and
benefits of implementing living streets
A comparative analysis of the expected
performance of a living street versus the
status quo would help demonstrate the
potential return on public invetsments that
support living streets. Comparison factors
could inlcude mode share, vehicle-miles
traveled, overall traffic congestion, air and
water quality, preservation of open space,
and ability to attaract new investment.
Living streets financing strategy
A financing strategy could identify the
expected costs of implementing the living
streets network; funds available for
implementation, including as part of other
projects and programs (see action 8); any
expected funding shortfall; and potential
funding sources and mechanisms to make
up the shortfall.
Financing needs for living streets could
include streetscape improvements, such
as: sidewalk widenings, corner and mid-
block bulb-outs, special paving,
realignment and reconstruction of curbs
and gutters, utility undergrounding,
enhanced crosswalks, street trees and
other landscaping, benches and other
pedestrian amenities, and pedestrian-
oriented street lights.
Additional financing may be needed for
transit improvements along living streets,
especially if the city decides to pursue bus
rapid transit (BRT) on these corridors.
Funds may be needed to purchase, build,
or install BRT features: dedicated bus ways;
multi-door, low-floor buses (or raised
platforms); enclosed or sheltered bus
stations; off-bus fare collection system and
real-time bus-arrival information system at
stations; queue-jump lanes; and a system
of bus-activated priority traffic signals.
Work program
In addition to these components, an
implementation strategy could include a
work program that identifies a multi-year
program timeline, annual projects and
tasks, and responsible city agency or
department for each action. This could
promote coordination throughout the
implementation process.
Explore long term funding sources
A living streets financing strategy could
identify the capital costs for creating living
streets across the city. Potential funding
sources for these costs include bonds, user
fees, benefit assessment districts, or other
parcel-based levies.
These funding mechanisms could require a
city-wide vote to gain the necessary
approval. Additional funding sources that
the city could explore include regional,
state, and federal programs to fund
transportation, stormwater management,
and infrastructure.
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 25
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Chapter 4
Appendix D provides information on a
number of potential financing sources
including tax-increment financing,
Community Development Block Grants,
impact fees, Transportation Enhancement
funds, and the Transportaion and
Community Systems Preservation
Program.
Develop specific area plans for living
street corridors
Specific area plans are commonly used by
communties to address land use and
development for a given area. They
typicaly include: the city's vision; declare
its goals, policies and development
standards, and outline its public
investment priorities with regard to
infrastructure and public services in the
planning area, or in this case a living street
corridors.
The city could develop specific area plans
for designated living street corridors. The
corridor plans would allow for a finer-
grained level of planning and design. The
plan could identify capital and street
improvements. They city would not need
to develop specific plans for every corridor
or wait to begin implementation of living
streets improvements until the corridors
plans are in place.
A specific area plan for living street
corridors could signal to the private sector
its long-term intentions for the corridors.
A plan could also help inform landowner
expectations about their property and
potentially encourage landowners to
consolidate parcels when parcels are
owned by multiple parties.
Exempt living streets from level of
service requirements
A common transportation policy that can
work against living streets is traditional
level of service (LOS) requirements. LOS
requirements measure the amount of
traffic congestion and vehicle flow on a
street, using a scale of A to F. Streets with
no congestion, free flowing and fast
moving traffic are rated as having and
LOS of A, whereas streets with high levels
of delay and congestion receive a ratings
of E or F. When the LOS exceeds D a
typical response is to expand the street or
widen the intersection. This can run
counter to what is needed to create a living
street.
Living streets receive low LOS ratings,
such as D or F because they have lower
traffic speeds and higher levels of
congestion. Denver could further its
objectives for the Living Streets Initiative
by exempting designated living street
corridors from LOS requirements.
For instance, in the State of Florida, local
governments are allowed to use
alternatives to automobile level of service
requirements in areas designated as
Multimodal Transportation Districts.
Within Florida, the Multimodal
Transportation Districts designation is
generally applied to downtowns, urban
core areas, regional activity center, or
traditional town centers or village. v
Integrate living streets into existing
streets-related programs
Implementation of living streets
improvements could be accelerated and
costs reduced by strategically
incorporating improvements into other
city projects. Cities, including Denver,
carry out routine streets-related work, sue
as street repaving, curb-and-gutter
reconstruction, utility undergrounding,
rehabilitation of sanitary sewers, and
installation of storm sewers.
There are several ways in which the city
could orient existing street-related work to
support living street objectives. The city
could institute a process that allows
sufficient time to review upcoming streets-
26 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
-------
related projects to identify opportunities
for incorporating living streets
improvements.
Similarly, the city could incorporate living
streets improvements into larger, one-time
capital projects. It could also add a a line
item for living streets in its Capital
Improvements Program. Coordinating this
process with the implementation strategy
discussed earler would help determine
where and what types of capital
improvements should be implemented.
The Living Streets Initiative team could be
responsible for this action.
Adopt supportive planning and zoning
and subdivision regulations
Municipal zoning and subdivision codes
regulate many aspects of the built
environment that can foster living streets.
These aspects include building orientation
and siting, development density and
intensity, height and setback of structures,
distance between buildings, and parking
ratios. The codes and regulations in many
communities make it difficult, if not
impossible, to create many of the elements
of living streets. These include buildings
close to each other and to the street; a
visually appealing variety of building
heights and styles; unobtrusive parking
Figure 19: The 16m Street Mall in Denver exhibits
many of the characteristics of living streets. (Photo
courtesy of city county of Denver)
and a dense mix of shops, offices, and
homes.
The city could review its zoning and
subdivision codes carefully for regulations
that prohibit or inhibit development that
support living streets If the city wants to
fully implement the Living Streets
Initiative, it might want to consider
revising its land development regulations
in the following ways:
• Rezone living streets districts for mixed-
use development, where a combination
of residential, retail, office, and other
compatible activities would be allowed.
Activities could be combined either in
the same general area (horizontal mixed
use) or even in the same building
(vertical mixed use).
Relax density limits, limits on building
height, lot coverage and floor-area ratio
and minimum lot size in living streets
corridors. This can help support the
moderate to high densities that are
needed to create vibrant, compact,
pedestrian-friendly districts and to
support frequent transit service. High
density can take the form of attractive,
well-designed townhouses and mid-rise
buildings.
Reduce front and side setback
requirements for infill. This can
increase buildable area on a lot, thus
making infill development more
financially feasibl and supports locating
development toward the street edge,
which can create a pleasant sense of
enclosure for pedestrians.
Set appropriate parking requirements
for living streets corridors. Living street
corridors often need less parking than
conventional development because they
are more compact and more transit- and
pedestrian-oriented.
Allow adjacent activities that are busy
at different times of the day to share
Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities | 27
-------
Chapter 4
parking facilities. Shared parking
would be appropriate, for example,
between an office building and a movie
theater, or between a high school and
adjacent residential neghtborhood.
Consider a form-based code overlay
for living streets corridors. Form-
based codes emphasize pleasing
building and street patterns and
"place-making" instead of strict and
inflexible density and land use
controls.
28 | US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
-------
I lusion
Denver is a national leader in progressive
planning and development. During the
past decade, the city has shaped
development patterns to grow jobs, protect
the environment, increase housing and
transportaion choice, and promote social
equity.
The Living Streets Initiative is a logical
next step in the city's efforts to achieve a
more sustainable and just development
pattern. The city is positioned to meet this
challenge.
The city has significant power and
authority to shape the street and adjacent
land use through their street standards,
development regulations, and public
investments.
There is citizen and community support
for the living streets effort. Residents want
many of the outcomes that result from a
living streets approach. They desire
transportation options, appealing and
attractive streets, investment in older
neighborhoods, and a fair and balanced
approach to development.
The ciy has visionary, progressive
leadership that is open to new ideas and
possibilities. Having this support is critical
because the public may be hesitent to
accept changes, such as short term
increases in traffic congestion or increased
density that can accompany living street
efforts.
The city is poised to take advantage of this
opportunity. Doing so requires changing
the way that streets are designed, built,
and used. It involves addressing the street
and adjacent land use and development,
and making infrastructure and permitting
decisions that:
• Balance travel modes and expand
transportation choices for residents.
• Design for the safety and comfort of all
street users, not only drivers.
• Turn streets into places to be.
• Permit compact, higher-density,
mixed-use development.
• Maximize the number of people
moving through the corridor,
including drivers, bus riders,
bicyclists, and pedestrians
• Attract new private development to
underused locations
-------
1 City and County of Denver. 2007, US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance application.
11 Ewing, Reid et al. 2003, Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity and Morbidity, American Journal of Health
Promotion, Vol. 18, No. 1.
Ui Arlington, Virginia, Columbia Pike Initiative. 2008, Streets Task Force Report, at
http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CPHD/forums/columbia/street_space/CPHDForumsColumbiaStreetSpace.aspx, 2/18/09.
iv Zimmerman, Maria. 2005. Creating Transit Oriented Community.. .A New Future for Northern Virginia, at http://www.datatrans.org/9-28-
05DATATOD.pdf, 2/17/09.
v Williams, Kristine M and Seegerman, Karen E. 2004, Model Regulations and Plan Amendmentsfor Multi-Modal Transportaion Districts,
at http://www.dot.state.fl.us/planning/systems/sm/los/pdfs/MMTDregs.pdf, 2/18/09
-------
APPENDIX A: EPA's SMART GROWTH IMPLEMENTATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM AND DENVER SITE VISIT
Communities around the country are interested in fostering economic growth, protecting environmental resources, and planning for
development, but they may lack the tools, resources, or information to achieve these goals. In response to this demand, the Development,
Community, and Environment Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), launched the Smart Growth Implementation
Assistance Program. This competitive program provides technical assistance through contractor services to selected communities. This
assistance is expected to improve the overall climate for infill, brownfields redevelopment, and the revitalization of non-brownfield sites, as
well as deliver on other community and environmental goals.
The city of Denver was one of six communities selected to participate in the SGIA program in 2007. The city asked EPA to help it explore
design and policy solutions that would help transform commercial corridors into living streets. After receiving this charge from the city,
EPA worked with its contractor, ICF International, to assemble a team of national smart growth experts to assist the city.
The team visited Denver July 30-August 2, 2008. Site visit activities included a four-day public design workshop, meetings with community
stakeholders and city leadership, and a public presentation of the team's findings. The workshop and presentation were open to the public
and included a wide variety of participants, including area residents, property owners, the business community, city officials, local
developers, and real estate brokers. Based on their experiences in other parts of the country, the team provided Denver with options and
strategies for consideration that could support the Living Streets Initiative.
Project Sponsor
City and County of Denver Living Streets Initiative
Local Team Members
Crissy Fanganello
City and County of Denver, Department of Public Works
Gideon Berger
City and County of Denver, Department of Community Planning and Development
Cindy Patton
City and County of Denver, Department of Public Works
-------
Katherine Cornwell
City and County of Denver, Department of Community Planning and Development
Monica Buhlig
City and County of Denver, Department of Environmental Health
Special Thanks
To Mayor John Hickenlooper and Councilwomen Peggy Lehman, Marcia Johnson, and Jeanne Robb for their participation in the workshop
and for encouraging the exploration of new planning and design solutions for Denver's commercial corridors. And to the students in the
University of Colorado Denver, College of Architecture and Planning's Planning Studio I class for their participation in the workshop and
the assistance they provided to the consultant team prior to the site visit.
Workshop Participants
Participants in the workshop and meetings represented a wide range of viewpoints and interests: property owners, businesses, real estate
professionals, interested citizens, city officials and staff, and others. The participants listed have been consolidated from sign-in sheets that
were circulated during the workshop and are included for reference purposes only. This list may not represent the full number of
attendees. Individuals may not have seen the sign-in sheet at the workshop, or they may have chosen not to sign in.
Greg Adams Catherine Dockery Peggy Lehmann Jeanne Robb
Jeff Becker Crissy Fanganello Frank Locantore Ray Rosado
Paul Bonaventura Alan Gass Jill Locantore Terry Ruiter
Winton Brazil Steve Gordon Bo Martinez Brad Segal
Brad Buchanan David Halterman Cassie Milestone Rob Smetana
Rebecca Cales Ellen Itteleson Brian Mitchell Sandy Stenmark
Kristin Cypher Bill James Barbara Metzger Monica Strobel
Katie Dawson Marcia Johnson Alexis Moore Dave Weaver
Mindy Becker Jim Kirchheimer Pamela Phox Dave Webster
John Desmond Terrell Lane Gene Pride Janice Webster
-------
EPA/ICF Consulting Team
Dena Beher, Principal, Strategic Economics
Ms. Belzer specializes in connecting regional economic and demographic growth trends to real estate development activity and local policy
initiatives. Her work draws on traditional urban economics and innovative analytical techniques to provide strategies for addressing growth
and development-related issues. Ms. Belzer is an expert on transit-oriented development, fostering mixed-use districts, and attracting local-
serving retail attraction.
Jim Charlier, President, Charlier Associates, Inc.
Mr. Charlier is a nationally recognized transportation planning professional with 31 years of experience in local, regional, and statewide
settings across the country. He has provided transportation planning services to clients throughout the United States and is a frequent
speaker, lecturer and facilitator on urban transportation planning challenges and opportunities.
Niko Letunic, Planner, Eisen I Letunic
Mr. Letunic is the co-founder of Eisen Letunic, a transportation, environment, and urban planning firm located in San Francisco, California.
He has extensive experience as an environmental planner in both the public and private sectors. Prior to co-founding Eisen I Letunic, he
worked as a planner at various Bay Area government agencies, including the U.S. EPA, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the
Association of Bay Area Governments, and the city of Oakland.
Tim Van Meter, Architect/Partner, Van Meter Williams Pollack
Mr. Van Meter's experience has ranged widely from buildings, to landscape designs, to urban designs for districts and neighborhoods. As a
partner in Van Meter Williams Pollack, Mr. van Meter has focused on mixed-use developments, urban infill projects, and affordable housing.
He has led the design team on many of the firm's complex design projects, formulating the program, building consensus, and developing
design solutions.
Rick Williams, Architect/Planner, Van Meter Williams Pollack
Mr. Williams' work has been on the forefront of mixed-use pedestrian and transit oriented planning and urban design. As a partner in Van
Meter Williams Pollack, Mr. Williams focuses on planning and urban design projects involving mixed use, pedestrian and transit oriented
developments, as well as project management and construction administration efforts for a variety of the firm's building projects.
Amy Doll, ICF International, managed the ICF consulting team.
Adhir Kackar, Clark Wilson, and Lynn Richards, participated from U.S. EPA's Development, Community and Environment Division
-------
PUBLIC INVITED!
The Metro Denver Living Streets Initiative &
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Present:
Living Streets Technical Workshop
From July 30 - August 2, staff from the US EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
Program and a group of nationally renowned land use, urban design,and transportation ex-
perts will explore the potential application of Smart Growth principles along one of Denver's
urban thoroughfares. As a kick-off to the City's Living Streets Initiative (www.denvergov.org/
Isi), this intensive conceptual planning effort will begin a dialogue with citizens, stakehold-
ers and community leaders about Denver's corridor redevelopment goals and objectives, as
well as Smart Growth Principles including context-sensitive and complete streets concepts.
The workshop will use the Cherry Creek corridor with its variety of street environments as
an urban laboratory. The Cherry Creek corridor includes Speer Boulevard, 1 st Avenue, Steele
Street, Alameda Avenue, Leetsdale Drive, and Parker Road. Specifically, the workshop will fo-
cus on the segment of the corridor between University Blvd and Quebec Street (1 st Avenue,
Steele Street, Ala meda Avenue and Leetsdale Drive).
DENVER
- : MILt HtflH •_! I •
Mil kO MAYORS
'
SMART
(HI COLFAX
ICJJ fe)l EVENTS CENTER
t
AMERICAN
LUNG
ASSOCIATION,
of Colorado
GLATTING JACKSON KERCHER ANGLIN
Schedule of Events: US EPA Complete StreetsTechnical Workshop*
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:30
5:00
6:00
7:00
8:00
7/30/2008
Cherry Creek
Corridor Public
Listening Session
Colfax Events
Center
1477 Columbine
Street
Living Streets
Symposium
Enrique Penalosa
Colfax Events
Center
1477 Columbine
Street
7/31/2008
EPA Team
Design Workshop
University of
Colorado Denver
College of
Architecture &
Planning
1250 14th Street
-14th & Larimer;
Rm.470
The general
public is invited
to view activities
in progress
throughout
the day.
Charrette
Open House
1250 14th Street,
Rm.470
8/1/2008
EPA Team
Design Workshop
University of
Colorado Denver
College of
Architectures
Planning
1250 14th Street
-1 4th & Larimer;
Rm.470
The general
public is invited
to view activities
in progress
throughout
the day.
Charrette
Open House
1250 14th Street,
Rm.470
8/2/2008
Presentation of
Findings
1250 14th Street,
Rm.470
5 See reverse for description of events & explanation of the design workshop.
-------
Description of Events
Complete Street Technical Workshop with the US EPA July 30- August 2,2008
Cherry Creek Corridor Public Listening Session
Wednesday, July 30th -4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Audience: Residents, property owners, business owners, community organizations within the Cherry Creek corridor
Description and Purpose: This session is a specific time for residents and stakeholders from the Cherry Creek corridor to share
their views and opinions about corridor redevelopment.The consultant team will use feedback from session participants to inform
their conceptual design work during the complete streets workshop.
Location: Colfax Events Center, 1477 Columbine St., Denver,CO (on Colfax across from City Park Esplanade)
Living Streets Symposium
Wednesday, July 30th - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Audience: General public, practicing professionals, students
Description and Purpose: Join us for an evening with Enrique Pefialosa, former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia for his talk entitled
"Living Streets: Our Cities Depend upon Them" followed by a question and answer panel.
Location: Colfax Events Center, 1477 Columbine St., Denver, CO (on Colfax across from City Park Esplanade)
Design Workshop
Thursday and Friday, July 31 stand August 1st-8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Audience: General Public invited to view activities (see below for a more detailed description of the workshop activities)
Description and Purpose: Using the urban laboratory, the consultant team will illustrate how complete street approaches could
potentially be applied to corridors in the city. Illustrations will elaborate on context sensitive and complete street concepts and
are intended to educate the community and city staff on the technical specifics of complete streets.The conceptual designs that
are developed during the workshop will be able to be generalized to other corridors in the city. The workshop will be open to the
public.The public can drop into the workshop to learn more about complete street approaches, and view how such approaches
can help the city achieve the goals of the Living Streets Initiative.
Location: University of Colorado College of Architectures Planning • 1250 14th Street (14th & Larimer) - Room 470
Design Workshop Open House
Thursday and Friday, July 31 stand August 1st-6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Audience: General Public
Description and Purpose: Specific opportunity for the public to learn about complete streets and view the illustrations that the
consultant team is developing during the workshop.
Structure: Presentation (recapping the day's technical workshop activities) at 6:00 PM to public,followed by Q & A session.
Location: University of Colorado College of Architectures Planning • 1250 14th Street (14th & Larimer) - Room 470
Presentation of Findings
Saturday, August 2nd- 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Audience: General Public
Description and Purpose: Recap of the complete streets workshop and presentation by the consultant team of the concept
illustrations developed during the design workshop. Presentation followed by Q & A.
Location: University of Colorado College of Architectures Planning • 1250 14th Street (14th & Larimer) - Room 470
What will the consultant team do during the workshop?
The US EPA consultant team will conduct an intensive workshop to develop conceptual designs for the application of Smart
Growth methodologies in Denver using the Cherry Creek corridor as an urban laboratory. The following types of issues will be
addressed through the workshop process:
Opportunities to improve connectivity and direct routing within the corridor.
Opportunities to improve pedestrian, bicyclist and transit movement along and across the corridor.
Opportunities to improve/further develop key nodes along the corridor.
Note: The Design Workshop will be open to the public.The public can drop-in to the workshop to learn more about complete
street approaches, and view the consultants as they work. An open house on each night will provide an opportunity for the
general public to meet the consultant team and view/comment on their ideas/work.Corridor residents and stakeholders that are
unable to participate in the Listening Session are encouraged to attend Thursday or Friday's open house.
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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APPENDIX B: STREET DESIGN RESOURCES
This appendix includes a brief list of organizations, websites and books that provide guidance on street design.
Project for Public Spaces - www.pps.org
This non profit group helps communities "turn their public spaces into vital community places, with programs, uses, and people-friendly
settings that build local value and serve community needs." It also serves as a clearinghouse for resources about place-making. Its website
includes case studies on over 80 great streets from around the world.
National Complete Streets Coalition - www.completestreets.org
This is a large coalition of diverse groups working to promote "complete streets," or streets designed to be safe for all users. The coalition's
goal is to "help with the adoption and implementation of 5 statewide and 25 regional or local complete streets policies by 2008."
Livable Streets Network - www.livablestreets.com
The Livable Streets Network is an "online community for people working to create sustainable cities through sensible urban planning,
design, and transportation policy." It provides free, open-source online resources such as Streetsblog; Streetfilms, a collection of short films
about sustainable urban transportation; StreetsWiki, a community-created library of reference articles; and LSNGroups, a forum and meeting
space.
Characteristics of Great Streets - www.planning.org/greatplaces/
The American Planning Association annually ranks Great Streets in America as part of its Great Places Program. Its website includes case
studies and images of information on 20 great streets and a list of the 12 characteristics of Great Streets.
Great Streets! - www.greatstreets.org
This website includes a dozen case studies of "main streets," primarily in the western U.S., and image galleries of six categories of streetscape
elements: street trees, planting strips, sidewalk benches, street clocks, street lamps, and "bricks and mortar."
Great Streets - By Allan B. Jacobs; The MIT Press, 1995
This book, already a planning classic, describes great streets, both ancient and modern, from around the world. More importantly, it carefully
analyzes the physical and social characteristics that make some streets great, such as building heights, street widths, tree spacing, and use
patterns. It covers various street types, including boulevards, commercial strips, small-town main streets, and residential roads.
-------
APPENDIX C: LIVING STREET CASE STUDIES
Denver is not alone in its effort to redevelop and transform its streets. A number of other communities, including Austin, Texas; St. Louis,
Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; and Washington, D.C., have recently launched similar efforts. This appendix includes
information on these efforts and more in-depth case studies of efforts in Arlington County, Virginia, Palo Alto, California, and Boulder,
Colorado. The Arlington County, Palo Alto and Boulder case studies are taken directly from a 2006 EPA SGIA report "Achieving the Vision:
Options for the Route 1 Corridor". This report can be downloaded at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/coUegepark.pdf (75 pages, 4.5 mb).
St. Louis' Great Streets Initiative - www.greatstreetsstlouis.net
Launched in early 2006, this effort of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, in St. Louis, Missouri, seeks "to expand the way
communities think of their streets." The initiative has developed an online "Digital Guide," which provides planning, design, and process-
related recommendations for making great streets happen. The initiative will also be providing planning and design assistance to
communities in the St. Louis region for demonstration projects.
Downtown Austin, Texas, Great Streets Master Plan - www.ci.austin.tx.us/greatstreets
The Austin plan seeks to create "vibrant, multi-functional, pedestrian-dominant, commercial corridors...to affect the livability, safety and
aesthetics of Austin's downtown streets." The plan's six guiding principles are: manage congestion; create balanced/active streets; design
streets as places; create interactive streets; impart pride of place; and integrate public art. In 1996, Austin voters approved dedicating $5
million in bonds to kick-start the "Great Streets Program."
Washington, D.C., Great Streets Initiative - www.greatstreetsdc.com
DC's initiative is a "multidisciplinary approach to corridor improvement comprising public realm investments, strategic land use plans,
public safety strategies and economic development assistance." The District Department of Transportation has committed more than $100
million over four years to design, improve, and maintain designated corridors. In January 2008, an additional $95 million was committed by
the District government in targeted Tax Increment Financing for neighborhood economic development projects along the six
priority corridors within the city.
San Francisco Better Streets Plan -www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/planning/Citywide/Better_Streets
San Francisco's plan "will create a unified set of standards, guidelines and implementation strategies to govern how the City designs, builds,
and maintains its pedestrian environment." The plan is designed to carry out the intent of the city's "Better Streets Policy," which calls for
streets to be designed in keeping with "best practices in environmental planning and pedestrian-oriented, multi-modal street design."
-------
Appendix C: Living Street Case Studies
Columbia Pike Special Revitalization
District
Arlington County Zoning Ordinance Section 20
(Appendix A) - "CP-FBC"
Adopted February 25, 2003
Arlington County, Virginia; State Highway Rte 244
Columbia Pike Vital Statistics
Average Daily Traffic: 30-40,000
Through Lanes: varies, 4 to 6
Typical Right of Way:
varies, 75 to 120 feet
Adjoining land uses:
Retail, office, multi-family
residential, civic
Transit: bus, 10,000 daily riders;
5-minute rush hour headway
Context
Arlington, Virginia—an urban county inside the Beltway directly across the Potomac River from
Washington, DC—has seen explosive development along the Metro [subway] corridors over the past
30 years while Columbia Pike, the "main street" for the southern portion of the county, has languished.
The Pike, a historic thoroughfare from the Pentagon to the Arlington/Fairfax County Line, saw virtually
no development throughout the boom years of Northern Virginia. It resembles any number of strip
commercial zones across the United States: an "arterial" that carries approximately 30,000 vehicles a day
(a figure that has remained stable over the past 20 years); a street that varies in width from 4 to 6 lanes;
lined primarily with parking lots and one and two story structures, built primarily from post-WWII to the
early 70s; a mixture of local retail and some national chains, fast food, new and used car dealerships,
several large garden apartment complexes, and a few high rise apartments and condominiums.
Background
The Columbia Pike Revitalization effort was initiated by Arlington
County to bring new life to this 3.5-mile urban corridor. The County
leadership—elected Board, county staff, and the quasi-governmental
community-based Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization
(CPRO)—recognized that the Pike represented the most
underdeveloped area in a county that is otherwise built out. They
wanted to encourage redevelopment, but at the same time, wanted to
direct/control the type of development - creating a mixed-use,
pedestrian environment (which was virtually non-existent) while
planning for future light rail or bus rapid transit (BRT) along the
corridor; retaining the ethnic/eclectic diversity of the community; and
maintaining small, locally owned businesses and existing affordable
housing.
CPRO and the county staff embarked on a 150-meeting, two-year
educational and visioning process, meeting with local business and
property owners, the many neighborhood and condo associations
along the Pike, etc., and producing a preliminary vision of what the
community desired for Columbia Pike. The County Board endorsed a
plan in March 2002, "The Columbia Pike Initiative: A Revitalization
Plan," that targeted specific areas for redevelopment and introduced
New Urbanist concepts.
-------
Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
During this period, the County recognized that the tools then available—the existing Euclidean zoning
ordinance, which addressed the usual items of land use, floor-area ratio, and building setbacks—could not
and would not produce the desired results (a traditional Main Street), but rather, more of the same. The
old code produced suburban sprawl - requiring setbacks, on-site parking, etc. - and used developer
proffers in attempt to achieve desirable development, which were time-consuming as well as
ineffective/non-existent where and when the economics for redevelopment were not strong. Even
traditional "urban design guidelines" would not get at the root of the problem: the creation and definition
of the street or public space. Arlington County was looking for a new tool—a mechanism that would
move the plan from concept to reality, not another vision plan that would not self-implement.
Form-Based Coding
With a clear form-based code, owner and neighbor can easily see and understand the possibilities for future
development. Unlike Euclidean Zoning, which segregates housing, recreation, workplace and government into
distinct zones of land use, the form-based code sets careful and clear controls on building form, with broad
parameters on building use, to shape clear public space (good streets, neighborhoods and parks).
The base principle of form-based coding is that design is more important than use. With proper urban form, a
greater integration of building uses is natural and comfortable. This principle is not dogma, however, and
recognizes that there are exceptions to its rule. There have always been "noxious uses" (whether biologically
or socially so) that must be kept separate from our neighborhoods. Also, by its nature, retail activity gains
synergy from other adjacent retail uses. Form-based coding recognizes and addresses these conditions.
Simple and clear graphic prescriptions and parameters for height, siting and building elements address the
basic necessities for forming good streets. Most allow variation within parameters (building height may vary,
for instance): however, some are straightforward prescriptions (such as the build-to line for main street
buildings). Where conventional zoning controls land use to an extreme level of specificity, form-based coding
fosters and protects a healthy balance, while allowing small-scale market economics to function, by
establishing broad parameters for uses. For short-term implementation purposes, it is perfectly appropriate to
target a specific mix of uses.
By keying the form-based code to the street frontage, the code provides a different kind of "zoning"— one
relative to the logic of the street. Form-based coding provides detailed information about building possibilities
(parameters) to landowners and neighbors. In addition, a clear master plan, implemented/enforced through the
regulatory instrument of form-based coding, allows smaller landholders the advantages of participating in a
larger project (synergy and predictability).
Similarly, the County Office of Economic Development provided additional impetus for the next step in
the Columbia Pike Revitalization Initiative. They recognized that, in addition to the problems caused by
the existing development regulations and approval process, the market gap between the County's metro
corridors and the Columbia Pike corridor were also a significant hindrance to the redevelopment of the
area. Although land costs were less, in all other aspects the cost (and time) for development and
construction were the same. The market demand on Columbia Pike was not strong enough to make up
that difference, so as long as the status quo remained in place, the expectation was that the Pike corridor
would remain moribund. The Columbia Pike Development Fund, established by the County Board and
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
administered through the Economic Development office, was used to hire the consultants to lead the
charrette and write the form-based code.
Ultimately, the master plan and form-based code were "incentivized" through a streamlined
administrative approval process and a few economic development tools, including a flexible tax
increment public infrastructure fund, a rehabilitation tax exemption, establishment of a technology zone,
and a parking strategy that includes a role for the public sector.
The Process
The County hired Dover, Kohl & Partners and Ferrell Madden Associates (through a public RFP process)
to carry out a week-long public design charrette to develop a more specific Masterplan for the corridor as
well as a form-based code to amend the zoning ordinance for the designated revitalization districts.
Simultaneously, the County developed anew set of economic development tools (described more fully
below) to work in conjunction with the new development regulations.
During the charrette week, the community was able to move beyond the NIMBY position of reacting to
(and typically against) individual projects and more clearly define what they wanted and where - as well
as the type of public amenities they expected. At the same time, the team further educated an already
enlightened and savvy community about the idea of a form-based code; not only how it differs from
Euclidian land use-based zoning, but also how it works from concept through implementation:
the simplification and graphic
nature of the code (regulating
plan and building envelope
standards);
the idea that code is prescriptive
/ that the public site plan review
process would be completed in
advance; and that
the architectural regulations
could be as tight or loose as the
community desired.
Columbia Pike Revitalization
Building Envelope Standards
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-------
Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
The drawings (and ideas) produced by the community during the charrette were synthesized into an
illustrative Masterplan (providing a potential build-out scenario), and then coded in the Regulating Plan
and Building Envelope Standards for the designated Revitalization Districts. These cover four sections of
the Pike and its intersecting and immediately parallel streets.
TOWN CENTER ILLUSTRATIVE PLAN
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
How form based coding shapes development
-------
Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
Politics and Passage
Following an intense six-month period of work by the consultants and county staff—including more
community meetings and hearings before the Planning Commission and County Board—the Columbia
Pike Form-Based Code (CP-FBC) was adopted by the County Board as a new section of the zoning
ordinance in February 2003. Compared to similar efforts, whether in Arlington County or elsewhere in
the U.S., amending the zoning ordinance for Columbia Pike and approving the new Form-Based Code
was an expedited process. Time to prepare and adopt: Community education and visioning process:
18 months. Drafting Form-Based Code and adoption: 6 months.
This rapid change could be attributed to several factors, including, in no particular order:
• A county leadership who desired change for the Pike and recognized that "business as usual"
would produce the usual results
• A lengthy public visioning/educational process
• The decision to make the CP-FBC an optional overlay, which removed/lessened the possibility of
the issue of "takings" or "downzoning"
Before adoption, there was considerable debate/discussion on three issues in particular, each of which
were resolved/addressed in different ways.
• Parking
• Street Width(s)
• Historic Properties
New Development and Design Regulations: Content and Administration
The new Form-Based Code is optional, a decision made by the County to avoid any potential "takings"
issues. It has no impact on existing buildings and uses. In addition, if they choose to do so, all property
owners still have the right to redevelop using their existing underlying zoning and by-right options, or to
proceed through the County's alternative "Site Plan" approval process.
However, most of the parcels along the Pike were simply not developable under the existing zoning—
whether due to current requirements, such as on-site parking, or economic feasibility under the by-right
FAR. Prior to the passage of the CP-FBC, developers had been hesitant to use the "site plan" process
along the Pike to address the site limitations (even though it has been used extensively by developers in
other areas of the County, particularly the Metro corridors). The site plan process has come to be viewed
as cumbersome, unpredictable and very expensive. On Columbia Pike, where return on investment for
new development pales in comparison to other areas of the County, site plan is simply not considered an
option by property owners and the development community.
The CP-FBC approval process is streamlined. For all properties less than 40,000 sf, development under
the CP-FBC is a by-right option with approvals handled administratively by county staff in 30 days or
less. For properties over 40,000 sf, the projects can proceed under an expedited special exception use
permit process, as long as the development follows the FBC. Approval under special exception is
expected within sixty days. In both cases approval is based on an objective set of standards rather than a
particular planning commissioner's, County Board member's, or community activist's like or dislike of
the day. They are review processes, not opportunities for individuals to redesign the project or Code.
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
To ensure that the FBC is being followed and that the community is aware of the projects prior to
approval, the County has established a notification process for the affected/adjacent neighborhood
associations and their representatives are included on the Administrative Review Team.
The Code is organized around a series of street frontages—"main street", "local street", "avenue", and
"neighborhood street"—with building envelope standards established for each. In addition there are
architectural standards—essentially a "dress code"—which are fairly loose (the community desired an
eclectic style, rather than limiting new development to any particular aesthetic), primarily addressing
windows, materials, doors, roofs, and walls and fences, etc.
Progress: New Projects Following the Form-Based Code
Several mixed-use redevelopment projects are in various stages of the County proposal and review
process. Several property owners and developers are in discussion with County staff and the
Revitalization Organization to determine what is possible on their properties under the new Code and
several properties have changed hands or are on the market. New development valued at over $1 billion,
in more than 10 separate projects, is now in the design and/or construction stage. All of this activity has
begun since the creation of the Columbia Pike Initiative and the passage of the form-based code—in a
geographic area that had only seen the development of a couple of fast food restaurants and a drive-
through national drugstore chain in the past three decades.
In a particularly positive example of the power of the FBC, a townhouse redevelopment project has been
approved and is under construction on a property immediately adjacent to the revitalization district.
Although the CP-FBC did not apply because it was outside the district, when the developer initially
unveiled the proposed project to county staff and the surrounding property owners, the neighborhood
requested that the developer follow the FBC because they knew what to expect. By following the FBC,
the developer worked with the community and gained their support for the project. The project then
moved through the process in the minimum period of time, received positive testimony by the affected
neighborhood associations, and was approved unanimously by the County Board.
Community goals fulfilled by the Form-Based Code
Each of the following features will contribute to the overall design and scale of the Pike, creating the
desired pedestrian-oriented main street and village center environment.
• Allow a variety of uses to create vitality and bring many activities of daily living within walking
distance of homes
All of the FBC frontage designations, with the exception of neighborhood street, allow for a mix of uses,
with shopfront buildings being required on the main street areas, (with the expressed intent of requiring
ground floor retail, although there is some flexibility initially) with either office or residential above.
• Foster Mixed Residential Density and Housing Types
A mixture of housing types are allowed on different street types—from apartments, to townhouses and
live-work units, to detached single family—and regulated by placement on the lot and mass, rather than
density. In addition, the Code expressly allows accessory and English basement units.
• Stimulate Infill and Rehabilitation Activity
The Code was created to stimulate and then shape infill development.
• If property owners choose to redevelop under the more prescriptive Form-Based Code, they gain
more development potential than under current by-right zoning.
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
• Use of the code also opens the door to use of the County economic development fund. The fund
was created specifically to spur appropriate growth on the Pike.
• Small properties have been relieved of on-site parking requirements, providing owners with
greater flexibility/ability to redevelop or rehabilitate their properties. This leads to two significant
benefits. The community is no longer held hostage waiting for a large developer to assemble
parcels and build a "mega project" when "the market" is ready. Secondly, it responds to the
community's desire to maintain an eclectic mix of building types and businesses by promoting
small scale development by existing property and business owners.
Building Design and Scale
The Code specifically addresses design and scale through the Regulating Plan, Building Envelope
Standards, and Architectural Standards in a number of ways:
• Limits the maximum floor-plate of new construction
• Requires that individual large building facade composition be broken up to read as separate
buildings at prescribed minimum-average intervals
• Provides minimum and maximum heights (based on stories rather than feet)
• Requires functioning street entries at maximum average distances
• Forbids parking lots and structures at the street frontage
• Requires interior block vehicular access through the creation of an alley system
• Reconnects streets through some existing mega-blocks.
• Provides incentives for protection and inclusion of "historic" structures and facades in new
development
Economic Development
Although the new development regulations and
process—the form-based code—represents the primary
tool for stimulating development and redevelopment,
the county has established several other instruments.
These economic development tools include: a flexible
tax increment public infrastructure fund (TIPIF), a
rehabilitation tax exemption, establishment of a
technology zone, extra development potential for
preserving or renovating historic structures, outreach
by the small business assistance network, and a
parking strategy that includes a financial role for the
public sector. New development valued at over $1
billion, in more than 10 separate projects, is now in
preliminary design, administrative review or
construction.
The TIPIF operates similarly to a TIP, but was
established to provide public investment in
infrastructure for individual major redevelopment
projects, (such as replacing sidewalks, undergrounding
utilities, or building a parking structure) that could
Mom Street
Charm!
Columbia Pike businesses
present you wrth an edectic mix
of oW and new: growth is encouraged.
yet always tempered by a desire to
maintawi the charm of Arlington's
International Main Street
ington's
International
Main Stree
For more information about Columbia PiKe and its
businesses, attractions and restaurants, visit:
cQiumtHapikepartriersnip.com
or call
Arlington Economic Development
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possiwe lulure
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-------
Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
make a difference in whether or not a specific project moved ahead, as well as for other public
infrastructure or amenities that would support the entire corridor revitalization effort.
Arlington County already had a Rehabilitation Tax Exemption. However, in conjunction with the new
development regulations, the exemption was amended in 2003 to make it more flexible by broadening the
eligibility requirements, increasing the emphasis on new construction, and expanding the areas in the
corridor in which the exemptions applied.
Similarly, the Technology Zone, which reduced the Business Professional Operational License, was
already in existence. In 2003, the geographic area was expanded to include all of the areas within the
Columbia Pike revitalization districts.
Additional incentive to renovate or restore historic buildings was provided by allowing two additional
stories to be built, within the same overall building envelope height, when the original building was
preserved and incorporated in a redevelopment project. This tool has proved to be rather popular and is
currently being reviewed by the County.
The Small Business Assistance Network and the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization have
undertaken research and outreach specifically to support and provide resources to the existing small
businesses along the Pike. This effort has included promotional materials (above image) as well as
community events, such as the annual blues festival, to attract people to the Pike community.
Perhaps most significantly, the County has taken a proactive role to create a "park once" environment.
This has included developing a parking strategy for the Pike that includes flexible parking solutions, such
as public participation in the creation of shared parking, as well as enhanced public transportation.
Note that the parking and transit plan is part of the economic development of the corridor.
TRANSIT IMPROVEMENTS AND PROPOSED PARKING LOCATIONS
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
Current conditions
Possible BRT
Could transition to LRT
Transportation
Today, the Columbia Pike corridor is the busiest local bus corridor in Virginia, but the revitalization plan
also incorporates the anticipated evolution to streetcar, light rail or bus rapid transit. The plan designates
four "centers"— each to have at least one future transit stop—where more dense, mixed-use
redevelopment is encouraged through the FBC. The Departments of Public Works and Planning worked
with the consultant team to establish minimum street standards for the future transit-way—street widths,
sidewalks, tree pits, medians—while maintaining pedestrian-oriented centers throughout the long-term
redevelopment of the Pike.
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
COLUMBIA PIKE CORRIDOR ILLUSTRATIVE PLAN
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Case Study: Columbia Pike, Arlington County, Virginia
Key tools
• An upfront public participation charrette process solidified community support and coordinated
multiple government entities (crucial due to the complex character of the area: multiple parcels and
property owners; numerous stakeholders; and involvement of multiple levels of government).
• The form-based code is a regulatory document, part of the zoning ordinance rather than a set of
guidelines. Provides predictability for citizens and developers.
• Parking is managed as part of a comprehensive community plan, not wholly delegated to individual
property owners.
• County approaches the initiative as an interdisciplinary endeavor. Implementation staff come from
both Departments of Planning and Economic Development and of Department of Public Works.
Resources
Columbia Pike Form Based Code
http://www.doverkohl.com/project_graphic_pages_pfds/Columbia%20Pike.pdf
Form Based Zoning, Columbia Pike as example: http://www.planning.org/pas/member/pdf/QNltext.pdf
APA Planning Advisory Service Report
http://www.planning.org/bookservice/description.htm?BCODE=P526
Arlington County information re: Columbia Pike
http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/CPHD/Forums/columbia/CPHDForumsColumbiaColumbiaPikeI
nitiativeMain. aspx
Columbia Pike Partnership
http://www.columbiapikepartnership.com/FORM/index E.html
Presentation at RailVolutions
http://www.railvolution.com/iv2005 jdfs/rv2005 325d.pdf
Columbia Pike signalization
http://www.gmupolicy.net/its/Signalpriorization_files/Signalpriorization.htm
Article about trolleys on Columbia Pike
http://www.washingtonpost.eom/wp-dvn/content/article/2006/01/l 1/AR2006011100762.html
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Case study
El Camino Real
Vital Statistics
Average Daily Traffic: 45-55,000
Through Lanes: 6
Typical Right of Way: 120 feet
Length of Section: 4.3 miles
Adjoining land uses:
Educational, commercial,
multifamily residential
El Camino Real
Palo Alto, California; State Highway Route 82
Context
El Camino Real is the oldest road in the west, and a
dominant local feature in the city of Palo Alto, which is
halfway between San Jose and San Francisco. It serves
significant local and regional traffic as a principal arterial. It
carries substantial bus traffic, and is close to a major
commuter rail station. Some locations see major pedestrian
movement, with high street crossing volumes at commercial
and school crossings. Finally, El Camino Real serves local bicycle trips.
Land uses along El Camino Real in Palo Alto include major commercial development, most of which
is auto-oriented, and a bit of which is pedestrian-focused, such as retail shops and restaurants. Multi-
family housing appears along the street at numerous locations. Design of these uses varies, with mid-
century development featuring front-facing parking lots, large setbacks, and little architectural detail,
and both older and newer development featuring side- or rear-located parking, smaller setbacks, and
greater architectural detail. Stanford University abuts El Camino Real on the west side of the northern
end of the section. Nearby land uses include major activity centers such as business parks, mixed-use
downtown areas, and a regional shopping mall.
Little vacant land exists along El Camino Real, but substantial growth is projected for the city and the
region, and it is expected that a significant portion of the city's growth will occur along this street,
especially as a location for multifamily housing.
The City of Palo Alto and Stanford University recognize the changing role of El Camino Real and
want to transform the corridor into a mixed-use urban inner-city arterial complete with street-oriented
uses, wide sidewalks, adequate lighting, bike paths and other appeals to the community.
Design Guidelines
The El Camino Real project addresses the character and form of the buildings and private sector land
not through specific development regulations but through design guidelines that serve to frame the
discussions between the community (& its adjudicative review boards) and the developers/builders.
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Case study: El Camino Real
Nationally, this is a conventional approach, leaving the implementation of the vision/master plan in the
realm of local politics and procedure. Much then depends on the level of public involvement and other
'political' contingencies - development is left in the realm of negotiation. Quoting from the document:
GUIDELINES 7.l.l A 7.1.2. E:
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
Economic Development
The design guidelines were received enthusiastically by the development community and have been
consistently implemented for the past 3 years.
Recognizing that the entire two-mile stretch of El Camino Real could not be a continuous pedestrian-
oriented corridor, the City's approach involved a node and corridor concept. This method focuses on
three pedestrian nodes (mainly at intersections) and two areas that are more auto-oriented. This creates
synergy among auto-oriented uses and pedestrian passages.
The development community continues to be strongly supportive because the guidelines promote
quality design and corridor image, which in turn have increased property values along El Camino
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
Real. Roughly a dozen new redevelopments have occurred along the 4.3-mile stretch since the design
guidelines have been implemented.
Transportation
The section of El Camino Real being redesigned and reconstructed is shown following:
Current conditions
Vehicle Traffic Characteristics. Traffic volume is 45-55,000 vehicles per day. With the effects of
congestion and traffic signal delay, peak-period travel speed is approximately 17 mph, although in
between signals, 85th percentile speeds exceed 40 mph, more than 5 miles above posted speed.
Transit Characteristics. Major bus lines run along this section of El Camino Real, at frequencies of 10
minutes during peak periods and 20-60 minutes during off-peak periods. There is a major commuter
rail station nearby.
Redesign
Palo Alto applied for and received a grant from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
to redesign El Camino Real. $280,000 (including a local match) became available for planning and
design work. The consulting team was Community Design + Architecture (urban design), Fehr &
Peers Associates (traffic engineering), Urban Advantage (visual simulations), Reid Ewing of
University of Maryland (context-sensitive design), and Joe McBride of UC Berkeley (urban forests).
About the same time, the then Director of Caltrans, Jeff Morales, began a Context Sensitive Solutions
(CSS) program whose aim is to make state highways more compatible with their land use contexts.
The redesign of El Camino Real, to be more like a main street, is the kind of project envisioned by
CSS, and the department has looked favorably on it.
The main transportation problems with El Camino Real as it currently exists are poor aesthetics, high
vehicle speeds, and difficult pedestrian crossings (see set of pictures on next page). Based on the plan
prepared by the consulting team, the City of Palo Alto has proposed the reconstruction of El Camino
Real to create:
1. An aesthetically attractive corridor that projects a positive image for Palo Alto.
2. A fully multi-modal urban thoroughfare that maintains mobility and improves safety for transit,
trucks, and autos, while improving safety and convenience for pedestrians and bicyclists; and
3. A center of community activity rather than a barrier between activities on each side of the street.
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
Existing Roadway with Aesthetic, Speeding, and Crossing Problems
The plan for El Camino Real pursues the community's goals by:
1. Planting hundreds of median trees to create a tree-lined street.
2. Reallocating the 120 ft right-of-way by narrowing travel lanes from 12 to 11 ft, allowing
parking lanes to substitute for shoulders, widening sidewalks, adding pedestrian refuges in
the medians, and adding corner bulb-outs to shorten pedestrian crossing distances; and
3. Dropping from 6 to 4 or 5 travel lanes near intersections with low cross street traffic
volumes and high pedestrian crossing volumes.
Median trees: Debate over the role of median trees has been a substantial barrier to full
implementation of the El Camino Real plan. Around year 2000 a group called Trees for El Camino
Real began to lobby and fund-raise for the installation of median trees. Having raised several hundred
thousand dollars, the group only needed Caltrans approval to begin planting trees. About one-third of
the median length through Palo Alto is wide enough for trees under current Caltrans clearance policy,
which requires a minimum median width of 12 feet. The rest of the median is of substandard width.
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
Caltrans is conducting a pilot study of median trees on El Camino Real. Several hundred trees are
currently being planted on the northern section next to Stanford, and a second planting in the southern
section is now underway. These are sections with the 12 ft medians, but under the pilot, trees are being
planted even on the median noses of 8 ft width. Just north of Palo Alto, the city of Menlo Park is using
the flexibility of the pilot project to plant trees on medians of only 5 ft width.
Reallocation of ROW: Caltrans has had no objection to narrowing lanes, providing a parking lane in
lieu of a shoulder, or adding bulb-outs. Here the main challenge is cost. The entire reconstruction is
estimated to cost $32 million. It is unclear when this portion of the project will become feasible.
Narrowing near intersections. The selective narrowing to 4 lanes faces the same financial constraints,
and also faces some political obstacles. This section of El Camino Real has 4 major four-way
intersections with cross-street traffic of up to 50,000 average daily traffic (ADT). The uniform six-lane
section of El Camino Real is scaled to these intersections. El Camino Real also has 17 T-intersections
with much lower cross street traffic volumes, on the order of 10k ADT. Two of these have high
pedestrian volumes due to school crossings, neighborhood commercial areas, and (in one case) a train
station. At these two intersections, pedestrian crossing volumes are so high that vehicle traffic from the
side streets clears faster than pedestrian traffic crossing the street, and narrowing El Camino Real to
four lanes would actually reduce intersection delay. Traffic simulations showed that as long as the
four-lane sections did not extend to the major intersections, overall travel time along the arterial would
not be significantly affected. The problem here is that some residents equate any narrowing with
increased congestion. To address this, a field test of the 4 or 5 lane segments is included in the plan.
Plan for 6-4 Lane Hybrid Design
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Finally, Stanford University is interested in creating a new bicycle connection through the eastern
portion of the campus (the Arboretum) to El Camino Real. This would be connect to the existing bike
path along El Camino and be consistent with the City's Draft Bicycle Plan.
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
The University has also explored transforming the frontage of El Camino Real from on-street parking
to a wider sidewalk with street trees.
Existing conditions and redesign
Existing
Redesign
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Case study: El Cam/no Real
Existing
Redesign
Key tools
Development guidelines to assure quality
development, including the appendix of
design solution examples. A great playbook to
get developers headed in the right direction.
Road network and streetscape improvements
The computer imaging.
The clear and specific numbers: quantitative
information about the street sections and
other design details. These give everyone
specifics.
Tax increment financing of amenities
Resources
El Camino real home page: http://www.citv.palo-alto.ca.us/planning-community/el-index.html
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Case study
28th Street
Vital Statistics
Boulder Pop: ~100,000
Average Daily Traffic: 46,500
Through Lanes: 4
Adjoining land uses:
Educational, commercial,
residential
28th Street
Boulder, Colorado; State Highway Route 36
Context
28th Street is the main roadway into Boulder from Denver,
Colorado. It borders the University of Colorado at Boulder
(CU) and serves as a prominent gateway and vital physical
link to CU's campus. It exceeds its threshold volume for
congested conditions. The 28th Street campus edge needs
functional and aesthetic improvement.
Planned Improvements
Developed and designed by the community in 2000, the 28th Street Improvements Project is currently
underway. It consists of three sections:
• "Hello Boulder!"—the south section adjacent to CU's Campus (from Baseline Road to
Arapaho Avenue);
• "Service City"—the north section (from Pearl Street to Iris Avenue), and;
• "New Town"—the middle section (from Arapahoe Avenue to Pearl Street).
Upon completion in early 2006, 28th Street will be transrformed into a multi-modal corridor with
unique transportation, safety and visual enhancements.
Before
After
The new 28th St. will use functional art, water-wise landscaping and improved signage and landmarks
to give the corridor a distinct character that animates Boulder's gateway and draws attention to several
landmarks, including Boulder Creek, Boulder Valley Regional Center and CU.
Future transit superstop on 28 Street, east side ...and west side
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Case study: Boulder 28th St.
Improved Transportation
Improvements include creating a multi-modal
transportation system to enhance safety and
accommodate travel for motorists, bicyclists,
transit riders and pedestrians of all ages. See
accompanying pictures for example details.
Expanded Travel Choices and Regional
Connections
Improvements will also include roadway
enhancements, better lighting, new transit
superstops, bus services, bike lanes, sidewalks
and multi-use paths. This is the first time bicycle
and transit facilities will be provided on the
south section of 28th Street. In addition to linking
to CU, it will also strengthen multi-modal travel
throughout the region, connecting with the
Twenty-Ninth Street retail project, the Boulder
Transit Village area, local and regional transit
routes, bus transit superstops and FasTracks.
Financing
The budget for "Hello Boulder!" was approved
in 2000 for $10 million. Slightly more than half
comes from state and federal sources, while the
rest comes from the City of Boulder's
Transportation Fund. Five million dollars of
external funds (at minimum) is being invested in
Boulder as a result of the project. Investments by
CU and other private enterprises are also
occurring.
Economic Development and Land Use
Coordination
The 28th Street improvements are a strategic
approach to public investment, designed to
entice private enterprises to locate and do
business along the corridor. Results so far are
positive.
Twenty Ninth Street Retail Project. This project
is Boulder's new open-air retail district, built on
the 62-acre site of the former Crossroads Mall. It
is a lifestyle retail district consisting of three
distinct neighborhoods that create a one-stop
shop destination. The district will consist of
approximately 850,000 total square feet of retail
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Case study: Boulder 28th St.
space, 3,664 parking spaces and more than one-quarter will be designated to open space. Anchors
include Foley's (150,000 sf - similar to Macy's), Home Depot, Century Theater (16-plex cinema) and
Wild Oats (35,000 sf - similar to Whole Foods Market). The project will also include 150,000 square
feet of class "A" office space and the first phase is scheduled to be completed by Fall 2006.
The University of Colorado has also developed a landscape plan, which includes new outdoor
basketball courts with sunken bleacher seating, flower gardens and a path leading to the city's new
multi-use path. As a beneficiary of the 28th Street Improvement Project, the University provided the
City of Boulder with a sidewalk easement.
Key tools
• Road and streetscape improvements
• Tax increment financing
• Public development of a framework plan for mall redevelopment that provided clear guidance
about community desires.
Resources
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/publicworks/depts/transportation/projects/28th.html
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/buildingservices/crossroads/index.htm
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APPENDIX D: SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING Bus SERVICE
Bus service in the Fulcrum is generally better than many area residents and workers realize. The 83L operates every day with peak period
headways of 10 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends and holidays. East of Colorado Boulevard, it makes local stops.
Several strategies could increase ridership and make bus service more efficient in the Fulcrum:
• Denser development
Increasing development densities and encouraging mixed-use development could help increase the bus ridership base.
• "Queue jump" lanes
A queue jump lane allows buses to bypass waiting traffic by getting an early green signal. It can be provided through a right-turn-only lane
or as a separate lane.
• Low-floor buses
Update the bus fleet with low-floor buses with multiple doors, like those, in use on the 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver. A low-floor bus
has no steps between the entry and the passenger cabin. This makes it easier for people, particularly seniors and persons with disabilities, to
get on and off the bus.
• Upgrade boarding areas
Currently, waiting passengers have to make do with decrepit benches next to fast-moving traffic. Boarding areas could be upgraded with
shelters with electronic signs providing GPS-based bus arrival information. This could help to brand bus stops and raise awareness of bus
service and can have a surprisingly large impact on ridership.
•
Create "super stops"
Super stops provide amenities like larger shelters, landscaping and vending machines and, more importantly, timed transfers between
routes. Super stops would be most useful at intersections where the 83L meets other bus routes (University, Colorado/ Alameda, Monaco and
Quebec).
• Local area circulator
Establish a local area circulator to connect the main activity nodes from University Boulevard to Colorado Boulevard Avenue. It would
primarily serve people traveling along the corridor, such as office workers on lunch break or afternoon shopper, rather than commuters. The
circulator would also increase access to the Super Target retail node, which could encourage more development in and around it.
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APPENDIX E: LIVING STREETS FUNDING SOURCES
This appendix includes information on potential funding strategies and resources and a list of street design resources.
Tax Increment Financing
TIP captures the future tax benefits of real estate improvements in a designated area to pay the cost of making those improvements in the
present. In a basic TIP, property assessments are made at a pre-development level in the specified area. Bonds are then issued to finance a
portion of the redevelopment or remediation costs. As property values and assessments in the area increase, the municipality uses the added
increment in tax revenues to meet the debt service on those bonds. The technique requires the creation of a special district and the
maintenance of two separate sets of tax records. An excellent resource to consult when setting up a TIP is the 2002 primer prepared for the
National Association of Realtors, which is available at: www.reaUor.org/smart growth.nsf/docfiles/TIFreport.pdf/$FILE/TIFreport.pdf(78 pages, 1.28
mb)
TIP bond proceeds commonly finance projects in non-blighted as well as blighted areas. They can be used for a variety of purposes associated
with redevelopment; development; or related physical infrastructure improvements, such as elementary and secondary educational facilities,
roads, bridges, parking facilities, recreational facilities, water and wastewater facilities, and electrical power plants. TIP has financed a wide
variety of successful commercial and industrial projects.
Community Development Block Grant Funds
The Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program is a flexible program in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of community development needs. The CDBG program
provides annual grants on a formula basis to local government and states. Communities receiving CDBG funds may use the funds for many
kinds of community development activities. Some examples include:
• Acquisition of property for public purposes;
• Construction or reconstruction of streets, water and sewer facilities, neighborhood centers, recreation facilities, and other public works.
• Demolition;
• Rehabilitation of public and private buildings;
• Public services;
• Planning activities;
• Assistance to nonprofit entities for community development activities; and
• Assistance to private, for profit entities to carry out economic development activities (including assistance to micro-enterprises).
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Impact Fees
An impact fee is a one-time charge intended to pass some costs for infrastructure to developers and ultimately those who purchase the new
homes. These fees can be imposed to cover costs of improvements to roads, schools, water, sewer, parks and recreational facilities, and other
municipal services.
Opponents often argue that impact fees stifle economic growth and reduce the supply of affordable housing. However, an analysis prepared
by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy showed impact fees have either a neutral or positive effect upon
economic growth, as measured by new jobs added. The Brookings Institution analysis examined economic development (job growth) in
Florida's 67 counties. The authors found that either impact fees had no effect on job growth or the counties with impact fees added more jobs
during the study period (1993-1999) when compared with areas lacking impact fees. This study can be downloaded at:
www.brookings.edu/reports/2003/06metropoHtanpoHcy nelson.aspx.
To create an impact fee ordinance that serves the mutual interests of developers and taxpayers, consider the following:
• Make implementation of impact fee ordinances contingent on sound master and capital improvement planning.
• Select and identify data determining the fee calculation, and update regularly.
• Exempt affordable housing.
• Exempt 55-and-over developments from school-related impact fees.
• Regionalize fees so developers are not assessed fees by different municipalities for the same project.
Transportation Enhancement Funds
Transportation Enhancements (TE) activities are federally funded community-based projects that expand travel choices and enhance the
transportation experience by improving the cultural, historic, aesthetic, and environmental aspects of the transportation infrastructure.
Projects can include creation of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, streetscape improvements, refurbishment of historic transportation facilities,
and other investments that enhance community access. The federal government provides funding for TE projects through surface
transportation legislation. A listing of past projects funded by TE money in Denver and elsewhere in Colorado is available at
www.enhancements.org/proiectUst.asp.
The U.S. Department of Transportation provides thorough guidance on the types of eligible projects, which is available at
www.fhwa.dot.aov/environment/te/auidance.htmieliaible.
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Transportation, Community and Systems Preservation Program (TCSP)
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides funding for projects that integrate transportation, community, and system
preservation plans and practices that: improve the efficiency of the transportation system; reduce the impacts of transportation on the
environment; reduce the need for costly future investments in public infrastructure; provide efficient access to jobs, services, and centers of
trade; examine community development patterns and identify strategies to encourage private sector development. Denver may want to
coordinate with Colorado Department of Transportation about approaching elected officials to use TCSP funds in Denver. While the
legislation describes TCSP as a discretionary grants program, it is routinely earmarked.
For more information, see the Federal Highway Administration's TCSP web site, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tcsp/index.html.
Buses and Bus Related Equipment and Facilities Program
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) administers a program that grants funds for buses and bus-related facilities such as shelters and
other passenger amenities. Eligible capital projects include the purchasing of buses for fleet and service expansion, bus maintenance and
administrative facilities, transfer facilities, bus malls, transportation centers, intermodal terminals, park-and-ride stations, acquisition of
replacement vehicles, bus rebuilds, bus preventive maintenance, passenger amenities such as passenger shelters and bus stop signs, accessory
and miscellaneous equipment such as mobile radio units, supervisory vehicles, fare boxes, computers and shop and garage equipment.
Eligible recipients for capital investment funds are public bodies and agencies (transit authorities and other state and local public bodies and
agencies thereof) including states, municipalities, other political subdivisions of states; public agencies and instrumentalities of one or more
states; and certain public corporations, boards and commissions established under state law. Funds are allocated on a discretionary basis.
For more information on available funding, see www.fta.dot.gov/documents/FTA Bus and Bus Facility Fact Sheet Oct 05.pdf. For information
on the program, see www.fta.dot.gov/funding/grants/grants financing 3557.html.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program
The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) provides grants to U.S. local
governments, states, territories, and Indian tribes, to fund projects that reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions, and that improve in
energy efficiency. This program was established as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The appropriated funding
level for this program is $3.2 billion. Approximately $2.7 billion dollars will be distributed on a formula basis to states, cities, counties and
tribal governments; $455 million of funds will be distributed on a competitive basis. Activities eligible for funding include:
• Development and Implementation of Transportation Programs to conserve energy.
• Building Codes and Inspections to promote building energy efficiency.
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• Development of an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and Technical Consultant Services to assist in the development of
such a strategy.
• Residential and Commercial Building Energy Audits.
• Financial Incentive Programs and Mechanisms for energy efficiency improvements such as energy savings performance contracting,
on-bill financing, and revolving loan funds.
• Grants to nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies for the purpose of performing Energy Efficiency Retrofits.
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Programs for Buildings and Facilities.
• Any Other Appropriate Activity that meets the purposes of the program and is approved by DOE.
Additional information on this program can be found at: www.eecbg.energy.govI
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