Development News

Transit-oriented development subject du jour in upcoming meetings

Thursday, July 17, 2008

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Downtown Living, Sustainability, Transit, Transportation

The push for better public transit (i.e. rail) is getting a hand from a couple of groups popular with young professionals. The Metro Detroit chapters of the Sierra Club and Urban Land Institute will be holding meetings and lectures this week on the importance of mass transit to the region's environmental and economic well being.

ULI will be holding a lecture/presentation on transit-oriented-development at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, 4454 Woodward Ave, in Detroit at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday. The event will focus on how creating long-term mass transit lines, such as light and commuter rail, lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment.

Much of that investment comes in dense, mixed-use buildings that let people live, work and play in the same urban village. It's a model that is widely considered one of the most sustainable around. The event will discuss such developments that are happening in Metro Detroit, future local mass transit projects and other similar developments elsewhere in the U.S.

Those attending will be served breakfast and be able to tour MOCAD's considering Architecture: Sustainable Designs from Detroit exhibit.

The central subject of the Sierra Club & Beer event in Berkley on July 31 will also be transit-oriented-development and how it can create more sustainable jobs locally.

"It's essential that young professionals get involved in the push for better transit because the decisions made now will shape the communities and infrastructure that we will live in in the future," says Chris Frey, the board president of Transportation Riders United.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Berkley Front bar.

Source: Metro Detroit chapters of Urban Land Institute and Sierra Club
Writer: Jon Zemke