In This Issue:

– Trading the SUV for a MetroCard

– A Greener Future for the New Jersey Highlands

– Calendar

Summer Update: Spotlight on the Region will be taking a hiatus for the month of August. We look forward to returning in early September.

Guest Editor: Juliette Michaelson, Senior Planner, RPA.

Trading the SUV for a MetroCard
by Robert D. Yaro, President, RPA

For nearly nine decades RPA has promoted compact, mixed-use cities and suburbs, organized around transit, sidewalks and shoe leather. Long before climate and energy concerns came to the fore, we argued for this kind of development because we believe it’s the best way to build communities that are good for people, the economy and the environment. While we’ve had our successes, we’ve also seen stubborn resistance from government and the public in adopting these principles as the bottom line in planning and transportation decisions. We’ve had too much low-density, automobile sprawl, fueled by a car-based culture and federal highway construction and mortgage subsidies.

We now seem poised, however, for a fundamental shift toward the kind of world that RPA has envisioned for 85 years – not thanks to a greater awareness of climate change, or to society’s realization that social networks depend on walkable neighborhoods, or because every year it’s harder to get around, but simply because the price of gasoline makes unaffordable the lifestyle that many Americans live. From elected leaders to business leaders to the general public, now that gas is more than $4 a gallon, people are making different decisions concerning how they live.

Ridership on the New York City subways, commuter rail and buses is at an all-time high, while traffic is down on bridges, tunnels and highways. New York City is even experiencing a surge in bicycle riders, including commuters. And across the region, new housing is being built in transit-accessible locations while exurban large lot subdivisions are abandoned.

Case in point: Toll Brothers, one of the nation’s largest housing developers and historically a builder of conventional McMansions at the exurban edge, has accelerated its investments in new urban condos, including a new high rise project on Third Avenue, around the corner from RPA’s Union Square headquarters, and several more apartment buildings in Brooklyn. Recent front page stories in the Wall Street Journal on the success of smart growth plans in Sacramento and small bungalow developments in Seattle provide additional tea leaves about these trends.

Meanwhile, as a result of escalating fuel prices, most American households are paying two or three times as much today to commute and heat their homes as they did just a few years ago. Many Americans and many residents of our region must now choose between filling the heating oil tank or paying the mortgage. Falling housing prices and SUV resale values make it difficult or impossible for them to refinance or downsize their homes or vehicles. As a result, isolated homes stay on the market for months, SUV and truck sales have cratered and demand for exurban offices has dropped – while housing sales and office rents in Manhattan and transit-accessible suburban centers have held up and even increased.

Considering the growing interest in denser, transit-accessible neighborhoods, the challenge for our region is to create both new transit capacity and opportunities for transit-oriented development. The good news is that we already have the nation’s largest transit system, with almost three quarters of national urban rail ridership, and that as a result of decades of reinvestment this system is approaching a state of good repair. The bad news is that the surge of new ridership has consumed nearly all of the system’s current capacity, leaving many subway, commuter rail and bus lines with crush loads. Moreover, large areas of the region lack any kind of bus or rail service. And dozens of suburban transit stops are surrounded by surface parking lots and low-density commercial uses, not the higher density housing and structured parking that the public now wants and the region’s future success requires.

To meet increased demands for transit, the MTA, NJ TRANSIT and ConnDOT must commit themselves to providing every neighborhood in the region with viable transit alternatives. In the long run they will need to create new transit capacity with the “megaprojects” – East Side Access, Second Avenue Subway, Access to the Region’s Core and LIRR Third Track – and the proposed New Haven to Hartford commuter rail extension. These projects will all require new funding in upcoming MTA capital plans and similar capital programs in New Jersey and Connecticut. Richard Ravitch, the longest serving member of RPA’s Board of Directors, is leading a commission that will recommend financing strategies to Governor Paterson and the New York State Legislature for the MTA’s upcoming five year Capital Plan. This plan will include funds needed to both sustain the existing MTA system and create the new capacity the region will need in an era of high fuel prices and rapidly rising transit demand. While adopting new long-range revenue raising plans may not be pleasant, the region can and will find the means to do so. These transportation systems are simply too important not to.

While New York focuses on the MTA’s capital plan, its counterparts in New Jersey and Connecticut should also include short-term measures to provide new alternatives in places poorly served by transit. This can be done by expanding bus and modern, high-speed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service to areas in the outer boroughs of New York City and suburbs throughout the region. These services can be put in place quickly and with relatively modest capital and operating investments, and they provide immediate transit services to underserved communities. New and expanded ferry service can provide similar transit service to waterfront communities across the region that currently lack transit access, from Asbury Park to Haverstraw and from Glen Cove to the Rockaways – all with minimal investments and immediate results. If these investments are made, the MTA’s soon to be completed South Ferry transit terminal in Lower Manhattan could become an intermodal hub for region-wide ferry services.

To meet the public’s rising demand for transit-accessible housing all three states must expand and accelerate their commitment to building dense walkable neighborhoods near transit stations. NJ TRANSIT’s successful Transit Village program provides a template for what the other two states should adopt. Under this program, dozens of cities and towns have allowed and encouraged the development of thousands of new housing units, office and retail development and structured parking, all within walking distance of commuter rail stops.

The MTA has begun a similar initiative, with Metro-North’s Transit Oriented Development projects in Beacon and Harrison. The MTA’s Sustainability Commission is proposing a major expansion of this program across its service area, and Governor Paterson’s Smart Growth Cabinet is investigating state initiatives that could advance this goal. The Long Island Rail Road is also working with local officials in places like Ronkonkoma and East Farmingdale to implement new TOD projects. In Connecticut, the General Assembly has adopted legislation promoting TOD plans, but the state Office of Policy and Management has been slow to release state grants – required to implement this statute – to municipalities .

While there is little we can do to limit the rise in global energy prices, there is much that we can do to ensure that the Tri-state region and all of its communities are prepared for its consequences. With our vast transit system and extensive network of compact cities and suburbs, we are better positioned than any other place in the country to respond to this challenge, and to create the new housing and transit options that will allow all of our 23 million residents to thrive in an era of high fuel prices.

There will be some who will say that we can’t afford to make these investments in a time of economic uncertainty and falling tax revenues. They are, in effect, saying to our residents and communities that we can’t afford to respond to this crisis and invest in their future. But in reality, we can’t afford not to take these steps. The well-being of every household, every community and every business in the region depends on it.

A Greener Future for the New Jersey Highlands
by Carlos Rodrigues, Vice-President and New Jersey Director, and Rob Pirani, Director of Environmental Programs, RPA

On July 17, after eight grueling hours of testimony and deliberations – and more than a year behind schedule – the New Jersey Highlands Council voted to adopt a Master Plan for the Highlands Region. Encompassing 860,000 acres in 88 municipalities – almost a fifth of New Jersey’s land mass – the Highlands is the source of drinking water for half of the state’s population. The purpose of this Master Plan is to protect this drinking water supply and the forested watersheds that feed it, while also maintaining landowner equity.

While the plan’s adoption is an important milestone in the decades-long efforts to establish a greenbelt for the core cities and suburbs in the New York metropolitan area, its ultimate success will depend on both its ability to enable the right kind of (re)development in the right places, and on preventing further sprawl in inappropriate locations.

Like most complex public policies, the plan has been controversial and contested from many sides. Some environmental organizations opposed it because the plan does not preclude some amount of future growth in the Highlands; landowners and builders also opposed it, concerned with loss of equity as a result of new restrictions on development. Both sides are now urging Governor Corzine to either veto the minutes of the Council meeting – which would effectively kill the plan – or to direct the Council to change the plan.

RPA was, in fact, one of the few voices to testify in support of the plan. It is our position that although the plan is far from perfect and will need to be revisited periodically, having a plan in place now is the best way to secure a more balanced and sustainable future for the Highlands. An adopted plan will mark the beginning – not the end – of a conversation, which promises to be lively, about implementation. Only an adopted plan can provide a predictable process by which preservation and economic growth efforts can continue, recognizing that planning itself is an on-going process that requires adjustments and modifications over time in response to new information and to meet unforeseen challenges. Perhaps it is the fact that RPA has been promoting the preservation of the Highlands for decades that gives us a longer view and more balanced perspective on the issue.

The Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, passed by the legislature in 2004, is in part to blame for the limitations of the Master Plan. Instead of designating a clear “green line” within which no development can take place and land owners are compensated through the sale of their development rights – the model adopted in the New Jersey Pinelands and in New York State’s Adirondacks – the Highlands Act failed to statutorily preclude development in the most environmentally sensitive areas of the Highlands. Instead, the legislature punted by establishing a stringent statutory framework but leaving it up to the Council and NJ DEP to decide the specifics of what to protect and where to build. This framework, by its nature subject to interpretation of the scientific basis and of subsequent enforcement actions, both twisted the original promise of the Highlands Act and, to a certain extent, compromised the planning process.

In light of this shortcoming, the Council is to be commended for persevering in the face of a shrill campaign by detractors. Sadly, lost in the rhetoric and sound bites, was any meaningful discussion of the real particulars of how the region should evolve over time. RPA believes that a balanced plan should ensure that the NJ Highlands continues to be a thriving and dynamic part of the state – not an enclave divorced from the rest of the region – and that this is compatible with guaranteeing that the region's precious resources – watersheds producing plentiful drinking water; scenic and historic landscapes; and farmland and wildlife habitat – are preserved and widely accessible.

Implementing the Master Plan over the next decades will require more from the Council than to act as the referee between development and conservation advocates. The region faces the Herculean task of retrofitting its infrastructure and building stock in ways that drastically reduce water and energy use, mitigate existing environmental degradation, address the severe jobs-to-housing imbalances, create affordable housing, reduce auto dependency and so forth. Resolving these deficiencies will likely require redevelopment and additional growth – the “smart growth” mandate of the Highlands Act.

The premise of the Highlands Act was that the Highlands should be fundamentally different from the cities and suburbs to the east, a quasi-rural landscape that can sustainably – that is, forever – provide drinking water and open space to the rest of New Jersey. But long term regional sustainability must also address the future of the 860,000 people that live in the Highlands today as well as the role the region can play in terms of a statewide climate change mitigation strategy. RPA would like to see the Highlands region become a pioneer in the “green economy,” a laboratory for the next great transformation that the state and the nation will need to undergo to wean ourselves away from our carbon dependency. A planning framework that supports new thinking and does not stifle innovation in the Highlands is what we need to make it happen.

Questions or comments on what’s in this issue? Send them to the editor of Spotlight on the Region, Alex Marshall, at alex@rpa.org.

If you have any techincal or formatting questions, please contact jferzoco@rpa.org

July 27
12:00 p.m.
Transportation Alternatives Press Conference on a Safer Queens Boulevard
Following the tragic crash that took the life of 22-year-old bicyclist Asif Rahman, Transportation Alternatives will join Councilmember Jim Gennaro, elected officials and community advocates from across Queens to call for safer bicycling and walking on Queens Boulevard. We need your help to bring a protected bike lane and pedestrian safety improvements to this perennially dangerous street.
Queens Boulevard at 55th Road, Queens, NY
For more info: bike@transalt.org

July 29
6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Transportation Alternatives 2008 Summer Mixer
The Black Door, 127 West 26th Street, Manhattan
$25
For more info: http://www.transalt.org/files/events/benefits/summermixer2008.html

July 30
6:30 p.m.
Are New York's Airports Obsolete?
From Beijing to Madrid, cutting-edge designs and innovations are transforming the ways we experience the world's airports and air travel. How is New York's airport system, which remains the busiest in the country, responding to pressing economic and design demands while serving a growing number of passengers? David Z. Plavin, consultant and former President, Airports Council International-North America, Richard Smyth, VP of Jet Blue, Charles Van Cook, P.E., Vice President, PB World, and WIlliam R. DeCota, Director of Aviation, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will discuss the challenges and creative potential for New York's aviation system.
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
$5 for RPA members and friends, reservations required
For more info and to make a reservation: (212) 534-1672, ext. 3395

August 2
12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Free Bicycle Helmet Fitting and Distribution by NYCDOT
A parent or legal guardian must be present for children under 18 to receive a helmet
Governor's Island, New York City
For directions visit: www.governorsislandalliance.org

September 4
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Combating Climate Change: A Leadership Initiative
Rocky Anderson, founder of High Road for Human Rights and former Mayor of Salt Lake City, will give the keynote address at Regional Plan Association's 2008 Mayors' Institute on Climate Change
India House, One Hanover Square, Manhattan
Free but reservations are required
For more information and to make a reservation: Call RPA at (212) 253-2727, ext. 310, or email katie@rpa.org

September 18
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Hard Times?...but Real Opportunities
2008 Downtown New Jersey Conference
Union County Performing Arts Center, 1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ 07065

September 27
8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
The Connecticut Land Use Academy
The Land Use Academy provides practical and accessible education for local land use decision makers across the state, with a focus on skills and knowledge needed to serve on land use commissions with confidence.
UConn Torrington, Main Building, Auditorium
$40, includes lunch
For more info and to register: http://www.clear.uconn.edu/lua.htm

November 15
8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
The Connecticut Land Use Academy
The Land Use Academy provides practical and accessible education for local land use decision makers across the state, with a focus on skills and knowledge needed to serve on land use commissions with confidence.
Northeast Utilities, 107 Selden St. Berlin, CT
$40, includes lunch
For more info and to register: http://www.clear.uconn.edu/lua.htm