Google’s campus in Mountain View, CA. Photo by Shawn Collins, via Flickr.
Earlier this week, Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose, CA announced that the city is in talks with Google to create a downtown, mass transportation hub around Diridon Station. The proposed development could bring up to 20,000 jobs and add upward of 6 million square feet of office and research space to downtown San Jose, according to city estimates. Mayor Liccardo explained why a future-thinking company might be interested in such an approach:
“In partnership with Google, we can reimagine Silicon Valley’s landscape, by creating a vibrant, architecturally iconic, transit-focused village that provides a model for a more sustainable future, and a sharp departure from the sprawling, auto-oriented tilt-up tech campuses of the Valley’s past.”
The development would connect to light rail, Caltrain, additional walkways and bicycle paths, and eventually a BART station that is slated for downtown. The proposal also includes “striking architecture and publicly accessible plazas, paseos, street-level retail and public parks along the Los Gatos Creek.”
San Jose and Google’s shared vision for the future is a prime example of how cities and anchor institutions can partner on transit-oriented development. But not all communities can attract tech giants like Google, nor do they need to, to realize their TOD goals. Striking a (Local) Grand Bargain, a report by the National Resource Network in the TODresources.org library, provides guidance on how cities and institutions like hospitals and universities can work together to drive growth and prosperity.
Recent TOD news
Here’s what has been happening this week at TOD projects across the country.
- Google Eyes Diridon Station in Transit Focused Development — San Jose Inside
- Oregon Metro’s TOD Program helps fund new project – Oregon Metro
- Special Election Vote to Allow Denser TOD in Denver Suburb Fails — Denver Business Journal
- Would building more parking boost Seattle Transit Riderhsip? — The Seattle Times
- Big TOD Project coming to Stapleton in Denver — Denver Business Journal
- TRB: World Bank develops its own TOD Framework – TRB
- Logan Square transit-oriented development headed to Plan Commission with new look — Curbed Chicago
- First Hill transit-oriented development to be affordable, Sound Transit to seek housing partners this summer — Capitol Hill Times
- Office building, condos, apartments to kick-start Central Park Station development in Stapleton — Denver Post
- 155 apartments at Mt. Juliet train station part of transit development plan — The Tennessean