NEW REPORT HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCATION EFFICIENCY

San Francisco Bay Area residents spend an average of 59 percent of their income on combined housing and transportation costs, with parts of the nine-county Northern California region averaging in excess of 70 percent, a new study from the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing reports. Bay Area Burden: Examining the Costs and Impacts of Housing and Transportation on Bay Area Residents, Their Neighborhoods, and the Environment provides a comprehensive analysis of the "cost of place" in the region and highlights the importance of location efficiency - the proximity of housing to transportation hubs, employment, and retail centers "as a driver of both affordability and environmental sustainability." . The study is the product of the ULI in conjunction with the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The report's sponsors hope to bring to the fore the discussion of transportation's impact on household costs and how paying attention to transportation can help create sustainable, affordable cities that reduce our overall environmental impact.

My Take: This is one of the major issues we have in Lake Worth - retail and employment opportunities require travel to other cities on a regular basis. Restricting height for Transit Oriented Development projects to three stories will do nothing to promote the concept and may jeopardize the city's ability to secure a passenger stop on the FEC (east tracks) once a commuter rail service is established there.