- CURRENT ACTIVITY -
The Regional Land Use 'Smart Growth' Study team has undertaken these six tasks during Phase 1 of the study:
Task 1: Assess Existing Land Use
Objectives: Identify the strengths and weaknesses of selected station areas in designated transit corridors based on FTA New Starts land use criteria and comparisons with other regions. Also, develop data to support the real estate development potential analysis in Task 3.
Task 2: Review and Update the 2020 Vision Plan
Objectives: Identify desired changes to the Central Indiana Transportation and Land Use Vision Plan prepared by the Central Indiana Regional Citizens League (CIRCL) in 1999.
Task 3: Perform Development Potential Analysis
Objective: Evaluate the market potential for real estate development and station specialization around selected stations.
Task 4: Build Community Support through Focus Groups.
Objectives: Engage various audiences (technical staffs, elected officials and neighborhood groups) in a shared, open and honest dialogue about the benefits and challenges of pursuing a strategy of transit-supportive development patterns and accompanying tools, regulations and incentives necessary to make it happen. The overarching goal and outcome of this “community dialogue” approach is to understand and overcome the very real “NIMBY” (Not In My Backyard) reaction that often accompanies the densities and development patterns typically proposed in transit-supportive or transit-oriented development.
Task 5: Develop Transit Supportive Strategies
Objective: Apply the best practices outlined in previous tasks to the development of transit-supportive land use policy recommendations that are both effective and locally acceptable.
Task 6: Present Final Study Results
Objective: Continue to build regional consensus on policies to promote transit-supportive land use by reviewing Task 5 recommendations with the Task 2 workshop participants and making refinements based on their comments.