Quote Originally Posted by ou48A View Post
Increasing the value of the land is about the only way higher density will occur on any scale.
The value of the land would be increased by decongesting the area via building several streets with more capacity and with commuter rail.
This would make the area a more realistic place to live for more people who have higher incomes.
There are definitely more ways to raise value of land than by "decongesting" (and I don't believe this area is congested at all) areas and commuter rail.

I will definitely say that the streets surrounding campus can hold enough capacity...capacity isn't an issue. Those roads function fine (they'd function better and more efficiently by replacing stoplights with roundabouts, but that's another story). Redoing some major street-scapes along lindsey, boyd, university, asp (north of campus corner) would definitely help land values though. However, Land Value in that area is already high because of the proximity to the university...and there's already a lot of money living around campus...just look at some of the houses just west of campus, some streets northwest of campus, little neighborhood off to the east of campus (east of classen and south of boyd). There's money living around campus, that's not a problem.

I'll agree that acquiring enough property is an issue for a medium-rise mixed use-type development.