On heels of recovery, TOD will regain momentum

ULI speakers plan for upswing

Wendy Natt, Mar 24, 09.

The economic collapse has dealt a blow to real estate development, including transit-oriented development, but speakers at the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Marketplace conference, At the Crossroads: Transportation and Development, say that momentum behind TOD will return as the economy begins to recover, according to an article on GlobeSt.com, which reported some highlights from the conference.

Christopher Leinberger, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and one of the ULI event’s featured speakers, predicted that after the economy hits bottom, “the vast majority of building permits…will probably be in urban environments and transit-oriented development.”

While the real estate market in California has been hit hard by the recession, CEO of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles Cecilia V. Estolano discussed how her agency is planning to be ready for the recovery when it comes by investing in small-scale infrastructure improvements and looking at ways to make TOD permitting and entitlements easier and more affordable for developers. “We not only need to make it easier to develop in urban areas, but we need to make it costlier to develop in outlying areas,” said Estolano.

Looking ahead to when the next economic upturn happens, real estate professionals expect the “75 million eco-boomers” who are entering college now to be a major market driver, according to the article.