Charting Maine’s Future

GrowSmart Maine’s staff planner Bruce Hyman will be attending the Gorham East-West Corridor Study public meeting tonight as a member of the study’s advisory council. He’ll be wearing his ‘GrowSmart hat’ in addition to a few others to advocate for smart growth transportation options for the area.

If you live, work, or travel in the Gorham, Westbrook, Scarborough and South Portland area, we encourage you to attend this meeting and share your thoughts and ideas about what future transportation infrastructure should include. Here are the event details:

Gorham East-West Corridor Study Public Meeting
when: Thursday, March 25, 6:00 - 8:00pm
where: Maine Turnpike Authority, Skyway Drive (Adjacent to Maine Turnpike Exit 46 southbound toll plaza) Portland, Maine

The Gorham East-West Corridor Feasibility Study is a major transportation and land use study of the Gorham, Westbrook, Scarborough and South Portland area. This area has historically been the fastest-growing residential region in Maine and as such, is subject to increasing traffic congestion, decreasing traffic safety and the loss of its treasured rural character.

Projections show 70% of the new homes and jobs in Maine over the next 25 years will locate in this part of Cumberland and York County - that’s about 35,000 new homes and about 25,000 new jobs.

Area residents and business owners are encouraged to attend this meeting to help determine the best way to manage this projected growth and to provide input on potential transportation and land use solutions.

The public is encouraged to ask questions and make comments during this meeting.

For more information on the study or questions about this meeting, visit
http://www.gorhamcorridor.org or call Carol Morris at 207-329-6502.

President Obama announced today that the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority will receive $35 million in ARRA funds to expand the Amtrak Downeaster route from Portland to Brunswick as part of an $8 billion national investment in high speed passenger rail. Senators Snowe and Collins released a joint statement about the grant explaining,

“Since its inception, the Downeaster service has enjoyed steady ridership increases, providing tremendous benefits to Maine, including reducing road congestion, cleaner air, commuting options, and easier access to the state for tourists and economic development opportunities for businesses and communities. Extending this critical rail service to Brunswick will not only build upon the these successes but also create jobs and further boost tourism in the Midcoast region, giving the Brunswick area, which is coping with the closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station, a much-needed economic shot in the arm.”

Read more about this announcement from the White House Press Secretary, the Press Herald, Trainriders Northeast, or Sen. Snowe and Rep. Pingree’s websites.

The Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey has released its findings for 2008, and there are some interesting findings about how Americans are getting to work. USA Today reports on some of the big national trends.

Nationwide, there are more households that own only one car, or no cars at all. And the percentage of workers who are driving themselves to work alone, with no other riders, dropped half a percentage point in the last two years.

That means that the number of cars on America’s roads during rush hours has dropped by more than ten million vehicles.

I just looked into the Maine data, which shows even bigger changes.

• The percentage of Mainers driving to work alone dropped from 79.2% in 2007 to 77.3% in 2008.
• The percentage of carpooling workers in Maine spiked from 9.7% in 2007 to 10.9% in 2008.

Also noteworthy: the percentage of “Occupied Housing Units With Fuel Oil, Kerosene, Etc. as Principal Heating Fuel” in Maine dropped substantially, from 77.7% in 2007 to 75.1% in 2008. It looks like we’re finally making a dent in our state’s reliance on oil.

More statistics are available here, from the Census Bureau’s web site.

Our latest column in Mainebiz, which follows up on this blog post about walkable neighborhoods having higher real-estate values, was published yesterday and is already generating a bit of buzz - thanks for reading!

The topic has also recently been discussed on the environmental blog Grist, where former GrowSmart Maine board member Stacy Mitchell wrote an essay last month about the environmental benefits of walkable neighborhood shops. In addition to the benefits of increased property values, there are also substantial environmental benefits:

“So far, the public debate about cars and climate change has been dominated by fuel economy. But driving has been growing at such a rapid pace—total miles driven in the U.S. rose 60 percent between 1987 and 2007—that even a big advance in fuel economy is likely to be wiped out by ever more miles on the road…

This is where local stores come in. Academics who study travel behavior say that the presence of neighborhood businesses is a major factor in how much we drive. Dozens of studies have found that people who live near small stores walk more for errands and, when they do drive, their trips are shorter.

Two recent empirical studies have analyzed the relationships between neighborhood’s “walkability” and local real estate values, and the evidence suggests that real estate locations within walking distance of important shops and services is more likely to increase in value.

Both studies used Walk Score to measure a particular location’s walkability. Walk Score is a Google Maps-based application that calculates the number of shops and services that are located within a mile (walking distance) of a particular location. If an address has a lot of supermarkets, drug stores, movie theaters, libraries, and other services close by, it gets a higher walk score; if there aren’t any services located within a mile, the Walk Score is zero.

It’s not perfect, but its scores do confirm most peoples’ perceptions of whether or not an area is “walkable.” My childhood home in rural Steep Falls, where my family never, ever walked to run daily errands, scored a zero; but Main Street in Waterville and downtown Rockland both score a 98 out of 100, while small-town Main Streets in Houlton, Caribou, Bethel, and Norway all score as “very walkable” in Walk Score’s calculations.

In some neighborhoods, real estate agents have begun promoting high “walk scores” as a selling point. Which leads to the central question of these studies: do higher “walk scores” really translate into higher real estate values?

The answer seems to be “yes.” In the “Walking the Walk” report, released by CEOs for Cities, researcher Joe Cortwright analyzed 15 housing markets and found a statistically significant relationship between home values and neighborhood walk scores. Here’s a summary from the CEOs for Cities blog:

An example of the effect of walkability on housing values cited in the study is found in Charlotte, NC. In a neighborhood with a typical Walk Score of 54 called Ashley Park, the median home price was $280,000. In a neighborhood with an above average Walk Score – 71 – called Wilmore, an otherwise similar home would be valued at $314,000. Controlling for all other factors including size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, age, neighborhood income levels, distance from the Central Business District and access to jobs, “if you were to pick up that house in Ashley Park, and place it in more walkable Wilmore, it would increase in value by $34,000 or 12 percent,” Cortright said.

A similar study by researchers at the University of Arizona used slightly different methods to arrive at a similar conclusion.

Gary Pivo and Jeffrey Fisher studied all types of properties, including retail, office, and industrial properties, and concluded that “a 10 point increase in walkability [on the Walk Score scale] increases property values by 5 to 8 percent, depending on property type.” You can read their working paper here.

Of course, these findings have big implications for municipal leaders, economic development professionals, and transportation planners. By investing in sidewalks and revising zoning codes to encourage pedestrian-friendly development, officials can boost property tax revenues and generate new wealth for homeowners and commercial landlords in their communities.

Download the full “Walking the Walk” report here.

The new issue of Mainebiz looks at the big transit-oriented development projects going up in downtown Brunswick and Freeport, in anticipation of the planned northward extension of the Downeaster passenger rail service. Even though that extension is still up in the air with uncertain financing, the mere possibility of it happening soon is attracting a lot of investment in the downtown areas of these two towns.

Reading about these projects that are going forward in the midst of a deep recession, I can’t help but wonder what could be possible if Maine made a really bold, solid commitment towards expanding its transit infrastructure:

Rail rebound?: Developers remain optimistic about the Downeaster expansion despite a funding flux

Not withstanding the Downeaster’s funding uncertainties, the six New England governors on Monday announced their commitment to a region-wide passenger rail investment strategy (here’s the PDF file). The governors expressed a desire to collaborate regionally in order to make a number of new passenger rail projects happen. Among the six “near term priorities” are upgrading the line between Portland and Boston to cut the travel time to 2 hours (which is how long the trip takes by automobile without any traffic on the way) and to increase the number of daily trips, and funding the Brunswick extension.

Washington’s House of Representatives just passed HB 1, the massive government spending package that’s been prescribed to prime our economy with a big infusion of cash.

The bill’s primary objective is getting money out of the Treasury and into American payrolls. But President Obama has also worked to make the bill a “down payment” on building the next American economy, and the bill includes big expenditures on clean energy, energy efficiency, and innovation in health care.

The Takeaway has been keeping a close eye on the stimulus package’s progress through the Capitol, and their ShovelWatch website is a wealth of information and background stories. ProPublica has also created an interactive map that breaks down the stimulus bill by category, as differently-sized blocks. Tax relief for individuals gets the biggest chunk of funds - $185 billion, or about $600 per person.

There’s also aid to states to help with widespread budget shortfalls: $79 billion for general fiscal relief, plus $87 billion for state medicaid programs. If this money were distributed equitably on a per-capita basis, Maine would receive 347.6 million for fiscal relief, plus $383 million for Medicaid (we got these figure by dividing the total stimulus by 300 million - the population of the country - and then multiplying by 1.32 million). In general, there’s a lot of spending that’s focused on shoring up public finances and programs - unemployment benefits, hunger programs, aid to local school districts, etc.

*Maine’s share is estimated by dividing the national allocation by the population of the USA (three hundred million) then multiplying by Maine’s state population (1,320,000).

It’s still possible that other states might take precedent over Maine’s needs, which would diminish these figures for our state. But this could be a big lifeline for Maine’s $800 million budget shortfall over the next biennium.

But the stimulus package also looks to make big new investments in new technology: $21 billion for school construction and technology (with a focus on making schools more energy-efficient); $20 billion for health care information technology, which will reduce health costs and improve health services significantly over the long term; $6 billion for wireless and broadband infrastructure; $1.1 billion for intercity rail construction and $12 billion for transit systems (which should help fund new buses, ferries, and vanpools in Maine, plus faster service on the Downeaster and expanded service to Freeport and Brunswick).

GrowSmart has focused its advocacy on the stimulus package’s transportation spending, as a member of the nationwide T4America coalition. Maine’s share of the $30 billion allocation for highways and bridges and the $12 billion allocation for transit would amount to $132 million and $52.8 million, respectively (again, assuming that the funds are distributed evenly among states according to their populations).

The Maine DOT’s list of “stimulus-ready” projects across the state includes a whopping $430 million for highways and bridges, plus over $105 million for non-highway transportation (including marine ports, railroad improvements, new ferries, and busses). Clearly the DOT and local transportation planning committees will have to triage projects and focus on projects that deliver the biggest bang for the buck.

The stimulus also includes some big new investments in renewable energy (a $20 billion tax credit, plus $8 billion in loans and $4.4 billion in R&D funding), electric grids ($11 billion), and energy efficiency ($6.2 billion for home weatherization, plus $11.4 billion for general efficiency projects). Maine’s old building stock makes the home weatherization spending particularly valuable to our state, where weatherization projects have a high rate of return and typically pay for themselves in reduced energy bills within five years. If spent immediately, our $27.3 million share of the home weatherization program could save Maine households over five million dollars this year alone.

The Boston Globe ran a story this past weekend about the culture of commuters who work in Boston but live in Maine, thanks to the Downeaster passenger rail service. The article makes clear the trains’ role in linking the economic powerhouse of Boston to Maine’s “quality places.”

Thanks to the trains’ wi-fi capabilities and electrical outlets, commuters have the option of working while they ride. But many commuters use the train as a social outlet as well: “America’s fastest-growing intercity train route,” writes the Globe’s Noah Bierman, “is part neighborhood bar, part rolling office park.”

Hat tip to the DowneastRiders.us blog for the link.

It’s looking increasingly likely that Congress will pass a second major stimulus bill after the election. Rather than trying to bribe us into buying plasma televisions, this one will most likely try to jump-start the economy with major investments in infrastructure construction and maintenance projects, with a particular focus on new, “green” infrastructure (things like mass transit, electrical grid improvements, and maintenance of metropolitan water and sewer systems).

The rationale is that many of these projects are ones we’d want to fund anyhow; by investing in them now, the federal government can create construction jobs to shore up employment, while also granting new mobility to workers and products during a time of high transportation costs.

In his Friday column, New York Times columnist David Brooks endorsed the idea:

A major infrastructure initiative would create jobs for the less-educated workers who have been hit hardest by the transition to an information economy. It would allow the U.S. to return to the fundamentals… Focusing on infrastructure would at least get us thinking about the real economy, asking hard questions about what will increase real productivity, helping people who are expanding companies rather than hedge funds.

Moreover, an infrastructure resurgence is desperately needed. Americans now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, a figure expected to double by 2020. The U.S. population is projected to increase by 50 percent over the next 42 years. American residential patterns have radically changed. Workplaces have decentralized. Commuting patterns are no longer radial, from suburban residences to central cities. Now they are complex weaves across broad megaregions. Yet the infrastructure system hasn’t adapted.

Brooks is justifiably suspicious of Congress’s ability to determine the smartest investments, so he proposes a “a base-closings-like commission to organize federal priorities” and examine new ideas in the transportation world and lead America into a new transportation revolution. Sounds like the Brookings report’s proposal for an independent commission to streamline Maine’s governments.

In today’s print edition, Smart Growth America’s communications director, David Goldberg, had this response published:

To the Editor:

David Brooks is spot-on with his call for major investment in transportation infrastructure, both for near-term economic stimulus and for a sustainable recovery. His recommendations of what to build are outdated, however.

As he notes, a way to put people to work would be to repair and maintain our existing highways, bridges and transit systems. But building new highways was the project for an earlier era, the 1950s, when gas was cheap and President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the Interstate System.

Today we urgently need to build the infrastructure for a clean-energy economy and reduced dependency on oil. Soaring gas prices made our vulnerability clear: Americans flocked to public transportation or took to their bicycles only to find the transit systems underfinanced and the roads dangerous and inhospitable. Half of our urban-dwelling citizens found they had no transit at all.

If we’re going to go into debt to build for the future, we must do so to complete our transportation network with high-speed rail, modern public transit, streets that support safe biking and walking, and, yes, well-maintained highways.

David Goldberg
Communications Director
Transportation for America Coalition

It’s looking increasingly likely that the infrastructure stimulus will split its investments equally between ready-to-build transit projects and highway maintenance work.

Unfortunately, with the possible exception of a relatively low-cost project to expand passenger rail from Portland to Brunswick, Maine doesn’t have any “ready-to-build” transit projects that would benefit from this bill. Too many of Augusta’s transportation planners can’t shake the 1950s, highways-only mindset. As a result, it looks likely that Maine will leave millions of dollars on the table as Washington moves forward with 21st-century mobility investments.

Hot on the heels of Saco Island, a transit-oriented development being built around the Biddeford/Saco passenger train station, Maine’s second major transit-oriented development is now officially under construction.

Maine Street Station will fill an empty lot in the middle of downtown Brunswick with over 40,000 square feet of new retail and office space adjacent to Brunswick’s planned passenger rail stop and Bowdoin College. A future phase of the project proposes to add a 75-room inn, another 18,000 square foot commercial building, and 16 units of housing.

The Downeaster passenger rail service is now moving forward with
expansion plans that will bring two trains a day from Portland north to Brunswick by
summer 2010. The first phase of construction at Maine Street Station is
expected to be complete sometime next year.

The project’s leasing agent, Tony Donovan, talked about the project as a new model for cost- and energy-saving economic development at last Friday’s Summit. If you’re a business owner looking to open a new transit-accessible office or storefront in the heart of downtown Brunswick, contact Tony to learn more.

WMTW Channel 8 was there yesterday afternoon to cover the groundbreaking - here’s their video report.