“One of the most impressive TOD projects that I have seen anywhere”

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An entrance in one of several small mid-block forecourts. Source: Paseo Verde

This week, CNU’s Public Square profiled Paseo Verde, a former 1.9-acre surface parking lot in a disinvested neighborhood of Philadelphia near SEPTA’s Regional Rail Temple University Station. What was once an area full of vacant lots and empty properties is now home to “120 affordable and market-rate apartments with supporting retail, community services, and 68 spaces of structured parking.”

Michael Rubinger, President & CEO of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), was the one who called it, “one of the most impressive transit-oriented development projects that I have seen anywhere in the United States.”

Developers Jonathan Rose and Asociacíon Puertorriqueños en Marcha saw the value in the site’s location near Temple University Station, the busiest station outside of Center City. The Paseo Verde project added quality and diversity to the neighborhood’s housing stock, and attracted retail and community services that were previously lacking. And as the profile explains, “Proximity to Temple University’s main campus and a busy commercial corridor provides walking accessibility to more than 4,000 jobs. Several hundred thousand more jobs are within a few minutes’ train ride to Center City.”

Quality, mixed-income housing like that at Paseo Verde makes it possible for people of all income levels to access opportunity, and enhances the stability and sustainability of the entire community. TOD 201: Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit, a guidebook from the Center for Transit-Oriented Development in the TODresources.org library, offers planning, finance, policy and implementation tools to promote affordable housing in your community.

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Here’s what has been happening this week at TOD projects across the country.