Courtesy Housing Trust Group
The suburban luxury Aviva apartments in Mesa, Ariz., are packed with amenities for downsizing boomers and millennials coming for tech jobs. Features include one of Arizona’s largest pools.
4. Cooperate with municipal leaders. The process of building in suburban and exurban areas can be more challenging than in urban areas and take longer, says Moura. “It can be difficult to conform to zoning laws, and often times variances must be sought to allow buildings to be taller and accommodate more greenspace and parking,” he says. In addition, there may be public outcry against taller buildings. His advice is for developers and architects to have a good neighborhood outreach program that starts early to build trust within the community as well as to be able to show clear, attractive renderings of buildings to illustrate how they fit within their context.
In many areas, it’s the municipal leaders who have begun to take the lead to attract development that adds to their revenue and population base. Richmond, Va., which experienced a boom in millennials moving downtown after 2010, is now seeing a swing back to the suburbs, says Jeff Geiger, a partner in the real estate development and land use and zoning practice at Hirschler, a local law firm. Good infrastructure was already in place in Richmond’s suburban counties like Henrico County, he says. But to attract mixed-use, multifamily development, the suburban counties recognized that traditional policies and approaches to land planning needed to adjust. Rather than create big urban-like downtown cores in various suburbs, the goal was to fashion compact, pedestrian-focused projects along existing corridors to stimulate development and rejuvenation that takes advantage of existing infrastructure, Geiger says.
In 2002, Henrico County started to approve zoning changes to increase density, height, and mixed-use with its Rocketts Landing project, followed by Innsbrook and Libbie Mill. “We’re seeing more employers and developers respond to the more urban type of development and infill in the county, which hadn’t been seen before,” says Ralph “Joe” Emerson, director of planning for the past 12 years. “We’re also seeing more public transit and walkable areas, which continues to take away demand for cars and add a 24/7 lifestyle.”
The suburban town of Harrison, N.Y., in Westchester County, north of New York City, also took steps as it witnessed office buildings become vacant and tax revenue decline in an area known as the “Platinum Mile,” bounded by three highways. “We organized a lunch and asked what everyone needed so we could develop a new master plan that would encourage development,” says mayor Ron Belmont. The result is an ongoing renaissance with varied uses, including a 200,000-square-foot Life Time Fitness gym and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and construction on Toll Brothers’ 421-unit, five-story apartment building, the Carraway, on a 10-acre site where two buildings once stood.
The county’s first Wegmans supermarket will be about 300 feet from Carraway’s door when completed next year. Besides the major roadways, there’s also an Amtrak train line into Manhattan in White Plains, the county seat 3 miles away, and a county-owned bus network.
