Recent stories in the business section of the Denver Post have featured real estate development around light rail stations. First, there was the story of the Denver Federal Center, and a few days later an article on the Denver Design District. This appears to be a continuation of the theme that transportation will drive future development in Denver. As reported in an earlier post, Regional Transportation District is taking a more flexible approach with transit oriented developments. All of this seems like great news. However, as reported in today’s Denver Post, FasTracks is at least $2 billion short in funding, and RTD’s board voted 13-1 against placing a sales tax increase on the November ballot. It is not surprising that a sales tax increase in this climate is not feasible politically. Given that many of the newly planned developments in the Denver area seem to be linked to transit, this shortfall in FasTracks funding may slow down some of it. However, given the general state of the economy, not all of it may come to fruition that quickly anyway.
Photo by vxla (Flicker)