NIMBYism and Unintended Consequences

Image by boltzr via Flickr
Any time a NIMBY wins a battle, there is often unintended consequences of that win. Sometimes the NIMBY's can end up with something worse than they were fighting against. Sometimes the consequence is a loss of something that could really helped the community in the long run.

In Salt Lake City, the west side of the city suffers from the victim mentality of NIMBY. They see things as a threat to their community because everyone likes to pick on the west side. While the west side did get screwed with the building of I-15 and I-80 that effectively cut them off from the rest of the city and the rebuilding that did not do the right thing and lower the freeway, the will often become their worst enemies by fighting projects that will ultimately help their neighborhood.

A perfect example of this is the Airport TRAX line. One of the plans for the line was to run it down 600 West and service Central Station in west Salt Lake. However, the west side fought against the project because it would have created a viaduct over the existing Union Pacific and Front Runner railroad tracks.

However, the section of the west side that would have been effected by this viaduct is minor. In fact it is actually cut off from the rest of the west side by I-15. In fact we are only talking about a few homes along the street along with a fairly new apartment complex at the corner of 600 West and North Temple.

Now instead of the viaduct, TRAX trains on the Airport will not serve the Intermodal Station at all and instead will continue to travel on North Temple, turn on 400 West and connect up with the existing TRAX lines at South Temple.

Now comes the unintended consequences.

Because there will no longer be a direct connection from the airport to Central Station, the two proposed hotels for the station area will not be built. While they would have not provide a huge amount of jobs, but they would have created new opportunities for economic development in a part of town that desperately needs it. With the addition of the hotels it would have been more likely that Central Station and Gateway could be connected through redevelopment.

However, all is not lost in the Central Station district. The city of Salt Lake does have plans on the books that would redevelop the area between Central Station and the old Rio Grande Station that would also connect those areas to downtown area.

While the west side NIMBY's may have won a battle in their area, in the long run their actions may have actually set back their area a decade or more.

Bicycle Center Open House

Image via Wikipedia

Sorry about the late notice on this one since it is tonight...

UTA & Partners Reaching Out To Bicycle Community

Open House the Next Step for Bringing Bicycle Transit Center to SLC

What: UTA is hosting an open house to discuss the Bicycle Transit Center Planning Project.

When: Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: Salt Lake City and County Building, 451 State Street, room 335

Who: Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City, Utah Department of Transportation, and the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee

Info: The open house will present preliminary recommendations and concept drawings for a future Bicycle Transit Center and seek input from the public.

The open house immediately follows the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting.

For more information, visit www.rideuta.com.

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Central Station

Image via WikipediaImagine getting of a train whether it be Front Runner or the California Zephyr (or any other long distance train that should service Salt Lake City), and arriving at a beautiful station mixing classic architecture with state of the art facilities. You have shopping, hotels, motels, and entertainment just a few steps away. Well, that dream died many years ago when Boyer was allowed to develop the Gateway center and those non-essential trains were moved several blocks away were no one will notice them.

Today we do have a nice intermodal depot but at the present time it is a shadow of what it could have been and can be in the future. The danger of the present station is that it will become a place that people get off Front Runner as quickly as possible, run over to TRAX and avoid the neighborhood completely. Instead to become a true Central Station, the station needs to be not only a station but a destination.

I posted a video back in December about the Berlin Hauptbahnhof station. Take a look at their website and see what is provided. Now they have substantially more trains than Salt Lake probably will ever have, but it gives you a good idea about the range of facilities to be found in great stations.

While there is at least one hotel planned across the street from Central Station, more needs to be done to truly make it a world class station. Here are some suggestions to take it to the next level:
-Make 100 South and 600 West a predestrian and transit corridor from the Gateway area to Central Station. While there is currently one building under redevelopment in the corridor, the rest of the area is pretty vacant and could easily be redeveloped. Then UTA can route a majority of the buses via 300 West/100 South/600 West to access the station. There is already a plan to turn 300 South into a pedestrian corridor but this will only link the station to the back side of the former Rio Grande Station and do little to connect the station with the main downtown core. A side benefit of creating this corridor along 100 South is that it is farther away from the homeless shelter that leaves a stigma (right or wrong) on 200 South at 400 West.

-Finish the second phase of Central Station that includes the parking garage along 200 South, and the building extending toward the current Amshack at the south end of the property.

-Insure that a lower priced motel is located near the station, possibly near the proposed higher end hotel to ensure that all travelers have a choice of accommodations.

-UTA should develop plans to either move their central garage or possible place it underground with development such as offices and restaurants above it. As developments moves toward the station, the present location of the garage will become a hindrance.

-Since there is little chance of attracting major retailers to the area with both the City Creek Center and Gateway trying to attract them, there is a great opportunity to build a center dedicated to locally owned stores and restaurants. There was talk of turning the old warehouse into a farmers market. This is an excellent idea to focus on the local culture. The Central Station could become Salt Lake version of the Pike Street Market giving new opportunities to locally owned retailers that get shut out by other places either by tax incentives, subsidies to big box retailers, and the false stigma of locally owned retailers.

We do have an opportunity to create a grand Central Station, but it will take a lot of effort, some create thinking, and a group of planners and city councilman that don't give into to special interest.

Articles of Note...

Image via WikipediaOne problem that many small businesses face is government regulations that are skewed against them and to big businesses and the automobile. One of these is parking regulations that keep small businesses from doing business and also are a deterrent to creating pedestrian friendly areas.

The Salt Lake City Council is now looking toward lower the standards that businesses have to meet when it comes to parking. However, there is homeowners who don't want people parking in front of their homes so they are opposed to the new regulations. While I can understand the people who have had moron's block their driveways, this is a policing issue and should be taken care that way.

Proposed parking revisions a hot topic

Next is a proposal in Sandy to eliminate high restrictions in order to allow a new development north of the South Towne Mall. This new development includes the Broadway Theater that the city leaders think will make them even more special.

What is laughable about the whole thing is that Sandy is calling the area around their city hall "downtown". Clearly the folks running Sandy are having delusions of Grandeur as that area is in not shape or form a downtown.

Maybe they think that calling it downtown will magically create an atmosphere? Clearly it is not a downtown area, but a suburban sprawl autocentric commercial office and retail area, nothing more.

Sandy Council delays height-limit vote

Finally we have an article about UTA buying used coaches from New Jersey Transit to add additional capacity for Front Runner.

While the cars are not ideal, they will provide needed capacity to the commuter rail system. It will cost substantially less to remodel these cars as apposed to buying new ones although they do not seat as many passengers compared to the cars from Bombardier.

The only downside is, they are not stainless steel cars that can last upwards of 50+ years, but if UTA can get 5 or even 10 years worth of use out of them they will pay for themselves and hopefully can get more Bombardier cars at that time.