It’s still all about land use. 

I’m all for efforts to extend rail and other alternative forms of transportation (in the right places!), but it will never be even close to enough. Until we do something about the incentives for developers to build single acre lot subdivisions that don’t connect (cul-de-sac paradises), we’ll just keep pushing more cars onto surface roads that will never support the traffic.

If the recent downturn has taught us anything, it should be that we have enough inventory of low density development to last us awhile.  Instead of sitting back and waiting for developers to come save their counties, commissioners in the exurban/suburban metro area should be re-tooling land use policy that lends itself to higher densities along transit nodes.  I get that folks like their one acre and a mule (hell, I do to), but the lack of diversity in our land use planning will kill growth over the long term more than anything else we do (or don’t do).

I’ve long been of the opinion that land use is the sole province of localities, but I’m more open than ever to state or regionally driven action that requires counties to have workable Master Plan and TOD centric development options in the local comprehensive plan.  If we don’t do it now when demand is low it will never happen.