The geography of advance transit-oriented development in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, 2000-2007

Phoenix adopted overlay zoning (an additional, targeted layer of regulations) in some light-rail transit (LRT) station areas at the site-selection stage to reduce planning-related uncertainty. This prompts consideration of advance transit-oriented development (TOD)-development that takes place before LRT system operation. In this paper we break down almost $1 billion worth of advance TOO in the Phoenix area by type of TOO, type of station area, and use of overlay zoning. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to GIS-based parcel-level data to identify five distinct station-area types. We then use ANOVA to verify statistically significant relationships between station-area type and: the value of advance TOO, the percentage of parcels with overlay zoning, and the percentage of advance TOO with overlay zoning. The five station-area types, ordered from highest to lowest advance TOO per station, are employment centers; Middle-Income Mixed-Use areas; transportation (park-and-ride) nodes; high population/rental areas; and urban poverty areas. Overlay zoning was used most in areas of urban poverty and least in station-area types with the most single-family housing. Advance TOO coincided strongly with overlay zoning in areas of urban poverty and least in employment and amenity centers. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.