The View From 1983:
Plans for the Takoma station area and for surrounding commercial and residential areas have been consistently controversial.
The community successfully fought being bisected by the proposed North Central Freeway, and opposition to Metro-related development closely followed the anti-freeway victory. Plan changes related to Metro have served to reduce the amount of development permitted in the immediate area, to modify planned segregation of commercial and residential areas by encouraging mixtures of uses at a reduced scale, and to lessen neighborhood disruption caused by new development.
There has been no new development in the station area in one of the region's neighborhoods with the fewest physical changes during the recent past, despite Metrorail and years of planning for its coming.
One effect of Metro in Takoma Park has been an increase in the area's attractiveness to more affluent households able to purchase large old homes. This effect has had a side-effect of displacing less affluent people who have generally been renters.
ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES:
District of Columbia. Anacostia, Farragut North + Farragut West, Gallery Place + Metro Center, Navy Yard, Rhode Island Avenue, Takoma.
Maryland. Addison Road, Friendship Heights, New Carrollton, Rockville, Silver Spring.
Virginia. Ballston + Court House + Rosslyn, King Street, Huntington.
EXCERPTED FROM:
These observations were compiled in 1983 by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, a group of 300 area-politicians that currently self-identifies as “the hub for regional partnership.” Within the context of 1980’s Metro history, transit author Zachary Schrag has described the group as essentially “a forum for intergovernmental discussions,” without direct impact on policy.
Read the full text below. “Metrorail Station Area Planning, A Metrorail Before-and-After Study Report,” by Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. August, 1983
Metrorail Station Area Plan... by Elliot Carter on Scribd