Some says a BART station is justified in Santa Clara because it would promote transit oriented developments in the city. While we support transit oriented developments in general, the city officials in Santa Clara think otherwise.
Last night, Santa Clara City Council voted down 4:3 a 5-story mixed-use development with 151 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail at 2232-2240 El Camino Real near El Camino and Scott. The proposed development was located on the VTA 522 Rapid line, just one rapid bus stop away from Santa Clara Caltrain and the site of the proposed Santa Clara station for BART Silicon Valley Phase 2…
…A prevalent comment was the sense that Santa Clara had already added enough housing. In her remarks before voting against the project, the Mayor commented, “our residents have reached the limits of their tolerance for the amount of housing we are willing to tolerate.”
…Less than a year earlier Santa Clara lost yet another housing/mixed use development, immediately across from the Caltrain station and proposed future BART station. That project was pulled by the developer, after community opposition reduced the size of that development from 450 apartment units, to 370, to 318.
Many cities are pursuing TODs with more modest transit investments such as commuter rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit. Santa Clara can certainly justify higher density with Caltrain and the rapid bus line 522 alone. However, city officials want $1 billion for BART in the city (a kind of train that you need a far higher population density to justify – for example, Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles) but not the TODs.
You can get more transit ridership and TODs throughout the region by spending $1 billion on various projects (including infill stations in the BART system) in more supportive cities than a redundant line in Santa Clara.