Transit Oriented Wilkes-Barre
In Wilkes-Barre, we hear a great deal about what lies ahead for our beautiful city- we also talk about our history and the roots of the area. I often warn people of romanticizing the past, as it is not somewhere we can go, but in terms of urban design and planning, this is the exception to the rule. Cities have become so car-centric over the years that we have damned ourselves and exiled ourselves to our 3 ton automobiles at the cost of our mental and physical health. Walkability is not just a buzzword, but a lifestyle that many people are looking for in a place to call home and Wilkes-Barre has the capacity for such, but we need the vision, drive, and work ethic to see it through. One way of accomplishing this is to adopt Transit-Oriented Development principles, which ironically, this area is already quite well equipped for.
What is Transit Oriented Development?
Transit oriented development is “a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport that promotes a symbiotic relationship between dense, compact urban form and public transport use”.
Why TOD Makes Sense Here
The Redevelopment Authority largely owns the rights to certain train tracks in the Luzerne/Lackawanna county region and has proposed a lightrail system in the LuLac Transportation Plan [though a Bus Rapid Transit system is more fiscally responsible and would better serve the population in our area] and so we are already set up for TOD in Downtown Wilkes-Barre.
This rail line served as an essential artery for the manufacturing and industry that took place in center city. This manufacturing has left the city and there is no reason to think that it will ever return to the center city area with the accessibility of local industrial parks, and our zoning map needs to be updated to reflect this, otherwise it is effectively discouraging other uses from thriving in the city. However, this provides us the opportunity to change the future of the city and reinvent our city by embracing our past and understanding how that can inform our future.
Bus Rapid Transit [BRT]
This corridor would best be served by a BRT line that connects Wilkes-Barre to Scranton via the existing right-of-way owned by the Redevelopment Authority. BRT best practices state that there should be infrequent stops, but TOD suggests stops every half mile, so stops would be frequent within the cities, but infrequent outside of the densely populated areas. BRT also requires a pre-paid system where riders pay before getting onto the bus to reduce loading times, much like a subway system.
Rezoning:
Rezoning is one of the most important steps in achieving a successful TOD plan for Wilkes-Barre. As I’ve mentioned, most of the zones adjacent to the proposed Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] line are currently industrial/manufacturing which is limiting growth for residential, commercial, and office uses, the industries that have the potential to thrive in cities in this day and age.
In the above image, the purple district would be mixed-use with a combination of retail, residential, and office space with minimal on-site parking so as to promote walkability and enhance the sense of place. The blue district to the right of that would be a dense residential district that would help to promote dense living to help provide a critical mass to induce demand for the BRT line and further provide the walkability that people are looking for. The green space is a new public square that anchors this entire project.
The Green Space
The green space is another critical factor of this proposal. TOD Best practices state that a major station should open up onto an attractive green space.
Further, this green space helps us to better fall in line with the precedent set by many other east coast cities of having frequent public squares. Philadelphia is laid out based on it’s four squares surround Penn Square/City Hall, Savannah is famous for it’s 22 public squares within their historic district. Wilkes-Barre has the capacity for additional green space, and that green space can be designed in such a way to embrace the history of the city as being an important east coast historical city. Further, when done correctly, a green space can help to induce demand and ignite private investment. In many cities, the places closest to public green space is the most sought after real estate in the city. Even in Wilkes-Barre, the most dense development historically is around Public Square. A second square that is adjacent to a viable transit line has the potential to be a major stimulus for our area.
This design largely displaces parking, by removing a large swath of parking, we are helping to induce new demand for living closer to campus, further helping bring people into the city.
Conclusion
I wanted to avoid making this blog post too long, but there are a multitude of details that are important in making this successful. I will go further into the details of different elements in future posts, but the purpose of this is to just introduce the topic and to begin the dialogue that we need to have.
Have a great day!
-B
