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| Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages |
| An EPA funded research project |
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PRT Model at HBP Transportation
Fair (CarrAmerica Center), with James Paxson, Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, and
coffee-loving canine - click for larger version
Cities21 (a San Francisco Foundation CIF project) and Hacienda Business Park
(HBP) won
a 26-month Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "Collaborative Science & Technology Network for Sustainability"
grant to study "Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages." Researchers will study a new concept
to reduce driving, provide alternative transportation to workers and the community, and reclaim parking areas for
critically needed housing. Study partners include City of Pleasanton, EPA Region 9, Oracle, MTC, BART, Bay Area
Council, Cambridge Systematics, RIDES, BayCap Shuttle Group, California Center for Land Recycling, Alameda County
Congestion Management Agency, East Bay Community Foundation's Livable Communities Project, the Livermore Amador
Valley Transit Authority, and Intrago Mobility. EPA's press release can be found here.
A Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) "shuttle" system will be explored
for Hacienda, complementing and significantly increasing the attractiveness of BART, carpool, vanpool, bicycle,
and bus commutes for the Business Park's 16,000 workers and 3,500 residents. PRT provides non-stop, no-wait, 30
mph service over the commute's "last mile," and services mid-day trips. PRT is an emerging technology
under development in Minnesota, Texas, the United Kingdom, and Korea. In addition to PRT, a very comprehensive
"door to door mobility" service is proposed, supplying both high tech (web/cellular) and "high touch"
(personal) solutions to meet employees' complex transportation needs.
- "Our current transportation policy path in the U. S. is clearly
unsustainable. Traffic, its environmental impacts and its impact on quality of life continue to get worse virtually
everywhere in the country. Innovative new ideas and new approaches are badly needed. We need a portfolio of innovative
approaches spread across the United States, with each one pushing the envelope towards a more sustainable future
transportation system. Cities21 and its Suburban Silver Bullet should be in this portfolio. It is innovative; it
is forward-looking; it addresses many key transportation challenges; and the potential benefits - if widely disseminated
- are large." - Steve Offutt, EPA's Best Workplaces For Commuters
- "The City of Pleasanton is excited about this grant and its contribution
to studying alternative transportation in and around Hacienda Business Park," said Pleasanton Mayor Jennifer
Hosterman. "I'm concerned about the environment and making Pleasanton the best possible city. I'm happy to
be contributing to this innovative research and exploring long-term solutions with such a terrific team of partners."
- "Oracle is dedicated to improving the quality of life for our employees
and our communities," said Randy Smith, Vice President of Oracle Global Real Estate and Facilities. "We
have undertaken significant measures to decrease congestion and pollution around our campuses and are proud to
be included in the EPA's list of top corporate commuter programs. We share the Hacienda Study's commitment to creating
a sustainable alternative transportation model in Pleasanton, that benefits the City, our employees, and the environment."
Office Park Transformation Thought-Leaders:
- Peter Calthorpe (author: The Next American Metropolis) at the
Congress for New Urbanism Conference (CNU XIII), June '05: "We new urbanists didn't focus on the growth of
office parks. This was a huge mistake. We need powerful strategies for these job centers. Also, one of my pet peeves
is that we've been dealing with 19th Century transit technology. We can do better than that. We can have ultra
light elevated transit systems with lightweight vehicles. With lighter vehicles, the system will use less energy."
- UCLA Professor Donald Shoup (author: The High Cost of Free Parking)
at CNU XIII. "Parking lots within our office parks represent a 'land bank.' Office parks can be transformed
in ways that few people now envision."
- Says Andrés Duany (author: Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl
...) about his plan to transform the "Upper Rock" business park in Rockville, MD, "If Suburbia
is to thrive in the 21st century, a place must be created that captures the imagination of the young, educated
'creative class'. No longer seduced by office parks with out-dated marble lobbies, these workers are attracted
to loft living and downtown intensity that reflects their self-image as 'worker-as-artist'."
- Geoffrey Booth (ULI lead author: Transforming Suburban Business Districts)
"It's all about quality of life - our life and our life style. We are looking for more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly,
live-work-shop places - making such places the emerging focus of smart growth. Our overriding objective in Transforming
Suburban Business Districts is to secure the Place-Making Dividend. Not just a sound real estate return but
one that carries with it tangible benefits to the community and for government finance. Create a special place
in which we feel comfortable and secure, and where our spirits are lifted."
- CNU President John Norquist, "I've turned from a PRT skeptic to
'I wanna know more.' My previous view of PRT was Morgantown and the Buck Rogers schemes that pop up in Popular
Mechanics from time to time. Using PRT to enrich a corporate campus is intriguing."
- Joel Garreau (author: Edge City: Life on the New Frontier), "I've
long thought personal rapid transit would be a silver bullet for Edge City transportation woes if you could keep
it as simple, customizable, scalable, affordable, and profitable as Legos. Cities21 may have cracked the code."
- University of Washington Professor Emeritus Jerry Schneider (Innovative Transportation
Technologies Web) "More and more cars, however green, are
not the answer we need to ward off a growing dependency on foreign oil and to help limit, perhaps reverse somewhat,
the degradation that has been imposed on our cities by the automobile. We can do much better but we have to form
large coalitions of like-minded people in order to overcome the tremendous vested interests that wish only to maintain
the status quo. Cities21 has shown us how this can be done. One can hope it will be emulated across the land."
- Murdoch University Professor Peter Newman (co-author: Sustainability
and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence) "The Cities21 vision begins to help car dependent cities
cope with cars as these cities begin the transition to an inevitable redesign so that people can inherently leave
the car at home and have easy sustainable transport options."
Media Coverage
Research Reference Material:
Hacienda and Cities21:
- Hacienda Business Park is an award-winning, 23-year-old, 10M square
foot, 875-acre mixed-use (office, flex, retail, residential, warehouse) development, located in the city of Pleasanton,
within Alameda County, in the San Francisco East Bay Area. HBP is located near the intersection of two interstate
highways: I580 and I680. There are currently 16,000 workers, with plans for 28,000 at buildout, and approximately
3,500 residents. Work is currently being performed to consider additional mixed uses, including housing, as part
of an effort to increase the integration between jobs, housing and transportation facilities. The San Francisco
Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) Dublin/Pleasanton station is located along the northern edge of the park.
The project includes everything from five-story campus buildings immediately adjacent to the BART station, to two-
and single- story buildings located on the periphery. Flex, light manufacturing, and retail uses are also found
throughout the development along with 1,530 units of housing.
- The San Francisco Foundation Community Initiative Funds (SFF CIF) serves
as a nonprofit "umbrella" for 70 projects working for public benefit. Cities21 is one of SFF CIF's projects.
Cities21 strives for better transit, greater urban livability, and reduced pollution. Some favored techniques include:
transit villages, real-estate in-fill, workforce housing, automated transit, and wireless connection-making software.
[Hacienda Business Park] [Cities21]
