National Experts Propose Solutions to Spark Transit-Oriented Development in South Sacramento
9/28/18 An Advisory Services Panel of national land use and urban planning experts representing the Urban Land Institute (ULI) spent the week in Sacramento diving into the area around the Meadowview and Florin Road light rail stations. Their aim is to provide unvarnished outside strategic recommendations of how to encourage the revitalization of a commercial corridor that has the benefit of being on a light rail line and includes multiple properties owned by Sacramento Regional Transit. The panel is one of only three in the country that ULI is hosting.
Over the week the panel interviewed over 75 stakeholders
–developers, business owners, religious leaders, and
community-based organizations—to inform their
recommendations.
The panel’s challenge was to provide a roadmap for how the area
can address escalating housing costs, the need for jobs and
services, and ways in which vacant land around the two light rail
stations could attract new economic development. Early
recommendations have focused on strategies to finance new
affordable housing projects in the short term, encourage higher
development densities at light rail stations, use youth arts and
education programs as community engagement and development, use
current job training programs to ready a local workforce to work
on future development in the community, use trees and green space
to create better walking conditions, and re-purpose outdated
commercial properties.
ULI will host the panel’s presentation and, once release, report on their Advisory Services webpage.