I don’t know the exact opinion landscape in West O or Rockridge or El Cerrito. But if we polled neighbors each, what % support do you think we would get for a 7 story residential project, and what would we get for a 30 story project? What do you think the spread would be?
The King of America’s brilliant mistake.
Outside of La Defense, you’d be hard pressed to find 30 story buildings on the RER. Most of the Tokyo rail station density is in the 6-10 story range. Point being - I don’t think that having a 30 story tower in Rockridge aligns it to some global rail station density standard.
Also, I fully agree on the inside vs outside 1/2 mile radius issue. I’d much rather see a greater harmonization between the two. That would mean some limits and parameters inside but more permissive development rules outside.
I’m not suggesting a hard limit at 7 stories, only that a 7 story project is a lot easier for many folks to accept / embrace than 30 or unlimited. But again, I don’t have the public opinion data. Would love to see it though.
Paris has a 9-10 story height limit citywide, except for some limited zones. A developer could not build a 400 foot tower on the basis of being near a metro stop. That’s because character and scale are not irrelevant considerations for them and rightly so. Still a very dense place overall.
I get your point that if one’s singular goal is station area density maximization, a 30 story tower might move that needle faster than a series of 5, 7, or 12 story buildings.
But, I think there’s a real risk in residential mega-projects (made possible by the state and not local jurisdictions) getting too far outside of public opinion and provoking a policy backlash.
Plenty of density can be achieved with projects that are less unpopular and less of a lightening rod. Legitimate urban planning considerations exist beyond just unit counts. I think that an urbanist movement that wants durability, broad support, and continued progress should keep those in mind.
But telling people that they must accept an unlimited building scale if they have a rail transit station nearby can have the unintended consequence of diminishing public support for rail transit. And sales tax revenue is rail transit’s lifeblood - not extra floors on a building.