City exploring light-rail housing

Affordable homes on route are focus

Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 3, 2005 12:00 AM

Phoenix officials are exploring any and all opportunities to build new housing along the 20-mile METRO light-rail path.

At a City Council subcommittee meeting Wednesday, officials said they hope to focus on three main types of housing in their transit development plan - living spaces for students, accessible housing and affordable housing.

"The biggest value of transit-oriented development is that it gives us an excuse to do what we should be doing anyway, creating great neighborhoods," said Marilee Utter, a consultant with Citiventure Associates LLC, which is working on the transit development plan at the council's request.

City officials have not yet identified specific sites for new housing but say the new transit line will provide myriad opportunities. They also acknowledge that the rising price of land in the Valley means they need to act quickly.

"The development community will want to put high-end, for-sale condos there (along the route)," Utter said.

The $1.3 billion starter line, which will connect Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, is expected to be open by December 2008. Officials believe it will be particularly popular with ASU students.

As a result, ASU is hoping to build student housing along the route. The goal is to have 250 student beds open and available by the time the downtown Phoenix campus holds its first classes next fall, more than 1,800 beds in place by the time Phase II opens in 2008 and more than 4,000 by the time build-out is complete in 2015.

Residents say they support a plan to build what will likely be high-density housing along the route but warned the city not to forget about the homeowners already in the area.

"We have a lot of historic neighborhoods abutting this line," said Paul Barnes, president of the Neighborhood Coalition of Greater Phoenix. "We don't want to have unintended consequences as we move forward.

"Because if this thing starts off wrong, you are going to have a lot of angst, a lot of bitterness."