Untapped Potential

The main obstacle is simple, local, and solvable – change zoning to allow for the creation of new homes and walkable neighborhoods. A significant number of municipalities today don’t allow for good TOD or even prohibit multifamily development completely, especially in whiter and wealthier suburbs. And even in the ones where vision is in place for better transit-oriented development, some still don’t have the underlying zoning rules to make it happen.

This obstacle not only affects individuals, it affects entire communities. The suburbs were once places where working people could strike out on their own, buy a home, easily get to jobs, move up the economic ladder, and contribute to the local economy and community, but that has vanished as competition for housing has grown and prices have skyrocketed. When younger families don’t have the opportunity buy an affordable starter home and build equity, empty nesters have nobody to sell their homes to when they want to downsize or move. When people who make a more modest living don’t have housing opportunities, their jobs - and the community and economy that they build - go elsewhere. When there is not enough affordable rental housing, especially in walkable and vibrant neighborhoods, younger residents leave for the places that do, or stay at home for increasing longer periods of time. In New Jersey, 47 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds were still living with their parents in 2015, the highest rate in the country. Without new affordable homes and walkable neighborhoods, housing markets tighten and costs rise, leading to less disposable income, longer commutes, the need to work longer hours, more stress, and poorer health for the region’s households.

This disparity falls most heavily on the region’s lower-income households who, as referenced in RPA’s report Pushed Out, have seen housing costs rise unabated and continue to get pushed further away from central, walkable areas with access to jobs. But where we have opportunities to put in place better policies that would enable TOD in the first place. We then explore future opportunities and the potential that will be unlocked in a world of on-demand, shared and autonomous vehicles where we no longer need vast expanses of parking near train stations.

And finally we assess the state of affordability requirements for multifamily developments and suggest complementary policies to ensure that affordable housing increases as we expand overall supply.it affects others as well – young families, seniors and anyone who needs affordable housing and doesn’t want to or can’t spend hours a day behind the wheel. People want these homes and neighborhoods, and we can build them if we choose to. Walkable neighborhoods with good access to transit are increasingly valued, by younger residents of the region in particular. Good, contextual transit-oriented development does more than just build homes. It supports the economy with shops, restaurants, jobs, and community facilities, all within walking distance. These don’t just serve the new development, but benefit the surrounding area as well. The merits of TOD are many: improved mobility, reduced environmental impact, economic development, and quality urban design all make for highly desirable places to live and work. But these benefits are not necessarily shared equally. In order to build TOD that will contribute to equity and prosperity for all, policymakers and developers must not only put in place the policies to ensure its construction, but also policies which ensure that these new homes are available to wide range of people with a diversity of incomes, professions, and family sizes.

This report looks at a number of opportunities to create more TOD in our region and to increase the number of homes and vibrant, walkable neighborhoods for people at all income levels. We first examine current conditions,