Best Practice of Sustainable Urban Development: Mockingbird Station, Dallas, TX Introduction Transit Oriented Development is at the very heart and soul of sustainability, and brings together compact, walkable communities with high quality rail systems. This creates low carbon lifestyles by enabling people to live, work, and play without depending on a car for mobility. This type of lifestyle can reduce energy consumption and driving by up to 85%. Well-designed TOD empowers people with the choice to walk, cycle, or take public transportation to meet their daily needs by providing greater transit accessibility and a mix of uses within the community fabric. This is an urban development response to the congestion, carbon emissions, and inefficiency …show more content…
- 1997 The developer Hughes bought a 7-acre property on Mockingbird Lane. - 1997 Plans were prepared for the development. - 2001 Mockingbird Station development was completed. - 2007 Mockingbird Station announced the ground breaking of the third phase of its mixed-use development, adding an additional 23,000 square feet of retail and restaurant. - 2008 23,000 square feet of new retail and entertainment building is completed. Mockingbird Station has proved that a properly conceived mixed-use TOD can succeed and flourish while acting as a catalyst to increase transit use. The Mockingbird Station TOD is widely reviewed in the planning and design literature as one of the earliest examples of TOD in sunbelt cities and received recognition as one of the best examples of land use in regard to transit related development nationwide (See such as Coleman, 2006 and Ohland, 2004). Contribution to Sustainability Mockingbird Station has helped shrink a city’s environmental footprint by reducing vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)—a direct correlate of energy consumption and tailpipe emissions. VMT declines not only from the shift of trips from auto to transit, but also replacement of auto trips to off-site destinations with on-site walking and cycling enabled by mixed land …show more content…
Whether TOD can have a long-term impact on the shape of the Metroplex without supportive public policies, however, warrants close attention. Whereas Dallas has adopted a wait-and-see approach to TOD, however, a sea change has occurred in the suburban communities of Richardson, Plano, Garland, Farmers Branch, and Irving, all of which are adopting proactive station area planning. These and other jurisdictions are seeking to transform station areas from exclusive park-and-ride facilities to multipurpose