Transit-oriented development policies and station area development in Asian cities

Kidokoro, Tetsuo Working Paper Transit-oriented development policies and station area development in Asian cities ADBI Working Paper Series, No. 947 Provided in Cooperation with: Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo Suggested Citation: Kidokoro, Tetsuo (2019) : Transit-oriented development policies and station area development in Asian cities, ADBI Working Paper Series, No. 947, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/222714 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ ADBI Working Paper Series TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND STATION AREA DEVELOPMENT IN ASIAN CITIES Tetsuo Kidokoro No. 947 May 2019 Asian Development Bank Institute The Working Paper series is a continuation of the formerly named Discussion Paper series; the numbering of the papers continued without interruption or change. ADBI’s working papers reflect initial ideas on a topic and are posted online for discussion. Some working papers may develop into other forms of publication. Suggested citation: Kidokoro, T. 2019. Transit-Oriented Development Policies and Station Area Development in Asian Cities. ADBI Working Paper 947. Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute. Available: https://www.adb.org/publications/transit-oriented-development-policies-asian-cities Please contact the authors for information about this paper. Email: ki[email protected]-tokyo.ac.jp Tetsuo Kidokoro is an associate professor at the Department of Urban Engineering of the University of Tokyo. The views expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of ADBI, ADB, its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms. Working papers are subject to formal revision and correction before they are finalized and considered published. Asian Development Bank Institute Kasumigaseki Building, 8th Floor 3-2-5 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-6008, Japan Tel: +81-3-3593-5500 Fax: +81-3-3593-5571 URL: www.adbi.org E-mail: [email protected] © 2019 Asian Development Bank Institute ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro Abstract Many metropolitan cities in Asia are planning and implementing extensive investment in mass transit networks and thus are now on the threshold of becoming transit cities or car traffic saturation cities. The promotion of transit-oriented development (TOD) policies will be a key to the progression to transit cities. TOD should consider a transit-oriented regional growth management plan, station area zoning regulations (mixed-use, minimum density, maximum parking, etc.), joint development among local governments, transit agencies, and private developers, and an institutional mechanism for public and private cooperation in station area development. This paper examines cases from cities in Japan, the United States, and Southeast Asia, including Tokyo and Toyama in Japan, Denver in the US, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. It concludes that the following are factors for the successful implementation of TOD in Asian cities: a shift from highway-based zoning to transit-oriented zoning; the creation of an institutional mechanism for public and private cooperation in station area development; a balance between public benefit and private benefit; the connection of transit services and affordable housing; and multi-modal connection planning, including walking. Keywords: Asia, mass transit network, metropolitan cities, transit cities, transit-oriented development, urbanization JEL Classification: R42, R51, R58, O18 ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF ASIAN URBANIZATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TOD .................................................................................................................... 1 3. CASE STUDIES .......................................................................................................... 2 3.1 Tokyo, Japan ................................................................................................... 2 3.2 Toyama, Japan ................................................................................................ 4 3.3 Denver, US ...................................................................................................... 6 3.4 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .................................................................................. 7 4. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 9 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 10 ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro 1 1. INTRODUCTION Many metropolitan cities in Asia are planning and implementing extensive investment in mass transit networks and thus are now on the threshold of becoming transit cities or car traffic saturation cities. The promotion of transit-oriented development (TOD) policies will be a key to the progression toward transit cities. Some of the key characteristics of the new directions for sustainable development in cities are now widely observable (OECD 2012): dense and proximate development patterns; urban areas linked by public transport systems; and accessibility to local services and jobs. It is apparent that these characteristics of sustainable urban development are quite compatible with TOD policies. However, automobile-oriented urban patterns have formed extensively in the meantime, as governments have vacillated due to the huge investment costs necessary for the construction of urban railways. Once an automobile-oriented city form has arisen, it has a lock-in effect; thus, it becomes very hard to transform a city with mass-transit-oriented patterns. As a result, though many cities are gradually introducing mass transit modes, the reality is that it is not easy to change the urban patterns and realize the synergy potential in the transport sector. In particular, many mega cities in Asia are now on the threshold of transforming into transit-oriented cities or becoming entrenched as automobile-oriented traffic saturation cities. To examine the possible paths to transform the pattern of urban development from automobile oriented to transit oriented, this paper firstly overviews the characteristics of urbanization in Asian cities in conjunction with TOD policies. Secondly, it examines cases from cities in Japan, the United States, and Southeast Asia, including Kanazawa Toyama and Tokyo in Japan, Denver and Portland in the US, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Finally, it discusses the lessons regarding the application of TOD policies. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF ASIAN URBANIZATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TOD Many studies and policy documents discuss the guidelines for TOD policies. Based on a careful examination of the existing documents, Figure 1 summarizes the key issues concerning TOD policies (Ditmar and Ohland 2003; Curtis, Renne, and Bertlini 2009; Salat and Ollivier 2017; Thomas et al. 2018). Figure 1: Key Issues Regarding the Application of TOD Policies ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro 2 In conjunction with the application of the above key points of TOD policies, several points require careful consideration in fast-growing Asian cities. First, many developing Asian cities are facing serious urban environmental problems, such as traffic congestion and air pollution. It is therefore important to determine the synergies between the solution of urban environmental problems and the enhancement of mobility through the application of TOD policies. Second, it is important to seek synergies in the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. It is obvious that disaster risks are higher in Asian countries than in the rest of the world. One of the characteristics of urbanization in Asia is that urban agglomerations have developed on the low-lying land of delta regions, and Asian cities are thus vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including cities located in arid regions in inland areas. It is necessary to consider synergies between mitigation and adaptation when applying compact city policies to fast-growing Asian cities. It is a considerable opportunity for cities to apply TOD policies to realize compact city forms that can contribute to both the mitigation of and the adaptation to climate change. It is therefore important to consider these aspects when formulating TOD plans. Third, sprawl and motorization are increasingly becoming a tendency of urbanization in Asian countries (Jenks et al. 2008). Due to rapid motorization, sprawl-type developments prevail, particularly in fast-growing Asian cities. Though the conventional image of Asian cities as high-density and mixed-use cities still applies in the central built-up areas, urbanization patterns in the fringe areas of fast-growing Asian cities are more and more becoming low density and automobile oriented with segregated land use. The formation of ongoing sprawl-type development could be detrimental to value capture due to the difficulty of development along transit routes; thus, the attractive station area development will be one of the keys to the successful implementation of TOD policies. Fourth, the existence of informal settlements is an important feature of many Asian cities. These informal settlements provide affordable housing for the urban poor. About 30% of Asia’s population still lived in slums in 2010, and the total number of slum dwellers is continuing to rise (UN-HABITAT 2012). The Asian region remains host to 505.5 million slum dwellers—over half of the world’s slum population (Dahiya 2012). Careful consideration of the existence of those informal settlements is necessary, particularly regarding the development of station areas. 3. CASE STUDIES This section reports case studies of cities with different maturities of TOD policy application in Japan, the United States, and Malaysia to distill the key factors for their successful implementation. 3.1 Tokyo, Japan Tokyo is one of the most transit-oriented mega cities in the world, and large-scale urban development projects are ongoing in the station areas of the city center. The redevelopment project in the Tokyo Station area is among the largest projects in the city center of Tokyo (Figure 2). Tokyo Station is the central station, where four Shinkansen high-speed rail lines and many commuter and subway lines connect. The Tokyo Station Area Redevelopment Project covers the city center neighboring Tokyo Station, Japan’s central business center, where major financial institutions, insurance companies, ICT companies, mass media, and trading companies are located. In terms of value capture, various redevelopment schemes are underway to provide the necessary public infrastructure at and around the station, including the Land Readjustment Project, the Transfer of Development Right (TDR), and the Urban Renaissance Special District ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro 3 (URSD). Once an area has received URSD designation, the local government cancels and decides anew the existing land use controls, floor area ratio (FAR), building coverage ratio (BCR), height limitation controls, and building line limitations. It has applied URSD to the redevelopment area and deregulated the FAR from 1200% to 1590% max. by taking into consideration this project’s contributions to urban regeneration for the whole area. Figure 2: Tokyo Station Redevelopment Project Area Regarding the stakeholder collaboration, the public–private partnership (PPP)-based collaboration in the city center (120 ha) around Tokyo Station (the Otemachi– Marunouchi–Yurakucho “OMY” area) began with the establishment of the OMY Redevelopment Project Council, which brought together property owners to think about the direction of urban generation for the area. The formation of the Council was based on Chiyoda Ward’s approach, which positioned PPP as a key urban development policy in the urban master plan. The Council continued discussing the direction of urban regeneration, and in 1994 the property owners reached a basic agreement on the principles of redevelopment to follow when reconstructing their office buildings. Furthermore, with the Council as the foundation, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), the Chiyoda Ward, and the JR East Railway Company joined and formed the Advisory Committee on OMY Area Development to cover the arena of PPP. In 2000, the Advisory Committee created the City-Planning Guidelines, which state the vision for the area and the building rules that property owners should follow when reconstructing their office buildings. It positioned the guidelines as evolutionary in the sense that they maintain principles but avoid rigid, long-term planning and aim to achieve the overall vision incrementally through individual projects. The details of the guidelines are also flexibly adjustable in accordance with the changing economic and social conditions. In fact, to date, the committee has revised the guidelines in 2005, 2008, and 2012. It follows that typical project-based urban development through PPP is occurring in the OMY area. Consensus making for the project has taken place within the OMY area. As discussed above, the property owner association known as the OMY Redevelopment Project Council has been the main platform for consensus making, and the Advisory Committee on OMY Area Development covers the PPP arena. Chiyoda Ward acted as a catalyst by ADBI Working Paper 947 T. Kidokoro 4 approaching property owners to create a platform for consensus making and to foster relational development rights. At the same time, TMG acted as an enabler by making a major shift from plan-led to project-led urban development policies in response to movements in the OMY area. The central government also supported these movements by making the necessary institutional arrangements. 3.2 Toyama, Japan Toyama city is a regional core-level city and the capital city of Toyama Prefecture. Through the annexation of neighboring towns and villages in 2005, Toyama city became the eleventh-largest city in Japan in terms of area coverage. Though the administrative area is wide, the ratio of habitable land is 38.2%, and almost 70% of the city area is covered by forest. People regard Toyama city as a champion of compact city policies, and the UN Climate Summit named it as one of the model cities for the District Energy Cities Initiative. Toyama city has recently changed its urban development policies from expansive urban development to compact city policies under the strong leadership of Mayor Masashi Mori. There are several issues behind this recent policy change—the decline of the city center, low-density urban development, high dependency on automobiles, an increase in administrative costs, ageing, an increase in the emission of CO2, and so on—that are common in small and medium-sized cities in Japan. To cope with the problems mentioned above, Toyama city has implemented compact city policies since Mayor Masashi Mori took office in 2002. In particular, TOD is a key policy of compact city policies in Toyama city. Toyama city’s basic policy is to strengthen public transportation, including rail, the light rail transit (LRT), and buses, and to concentrate urban facilities along public transport corridors (Figure 3). There are three main measures with regard to TOD in Toyama city: strengthening public transportation, regulating and guiding development, and revitalizing the city center (Table 1). The city’s master plan designates railway and tram lines in the city and selected bus lines, which run frequently (more than about 60 services/day) between the city center and suburban centers or between the city center and important facilities (including the university, hospitals, and the airport), as public transportation corridors. The city government opened a 7.6 km LRT (Toyama LRT: TLR), which converted the conventional suburban rail into a modern LRT system, and started the loop-line service in the city center, which connects the city tram and TLR and run-through services between the TLR, the city tram, and a suburban rail line. It constructed and operates the TLR under the principle of public and private partnership (PPP); it implemented the construction of the TLR with a national subsidy, and a “third-sector company,” Toyama Light Rail, operates it. Toyama city (33.1%), the prefecture government (16%), and various local companies (50.8%) share the equity of Toyama Light Rail. A Land Adjustment Project constructed the public facilities at and around Toyama Station, including a station plaza and the north–south connection through the station.