BART system may have because of COVID-19 caused many of the riders off but it has done not a thing to slow down the transit agency’s efforts to take away housing construction on property it owns throughout the Bay Area.
BART Station Activity and Apartment Residents
Moreover, the resident has moved into the new apartments towering above the MacArthur BART station. In fact, the crews are busy at work building a new housing, office, hotel, and retail complex at Millbrae stop. Now, a developer is drawing up plans for hundreds of units mere steps from the El Cerrito Plaza station.
Public Transportation System and Housing Crisis Collide Uncomfortably
The public transportation system and the Bay Area’s housing is hot-button issue because of the push for new development. It dives both headlong into thorny politics. There are also familiar debates between neighbors. This is over the size and density of new buildings. In fact, the projects have also prompted worries among some BART commuters. This is because they think the new developments will come at the expense of coveted parking spaces. In fact, much of BART’s land is currently dedicated to station parking lots.
Apartment Units Under Construction
There almost 1,000 units currently under construction on the BART property with another 2,000 in the planning process. In fact, those are just the beginning. Therefore, the transit system wants to boost production and build about 14,000 more units over the next two decades. In fact, none of those figures include the many other developments on privately owned land near BART stations.
BART is going to come back and people are going to want to live near transit. That is the belief in the long term, said Abigail Thorne-Lyman, the manager of BART’s development program.
Incentives for BART
In this development boom, there are plenty of incentives for BART. Thousands of new neighbors they bring to stations are likely to be frequent riders. In fact, the projects are meant to increase ridership. Taking in $2.2 million, BART makes money from the developments, this fiscal year from ground leases it has in place so far.
