The Economic Impact of Public Projects at Dart Stations

[Michelle Garcia Zarate]

Since 1999, The University of North Texas and DART (Light Rail Transit) came together to move millions of people. This partnership benefited the economic growth of businesses near light rail stations. In this article is stated that property values near DART LRT stations grow much faster economically speaking than areas where a light rail station is not available, these public projects are within a quarter-mile of DART stations.

The region taken by the researchers of the University of North Texas to carry the analysis out was Dallas-Fort Worth, this region includes the counties of Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise. After the selection for the region, the data on spending is entered and now the spending and impacts can be calculated. There are three levels of spending impacts: direct. Which refers to the purchase of resources by real state developers, builders etc. Indirect, that is industry to industry purchases by regional suppliers. And induced, which conveys the change in household demand while the employees earn money for consumer spending. The outcome of the sum of these three spending impacts is known as the total impact to the economy. The investment on public projects is known to be public/private properties designated for school campuses, healthcare, city halls, among other public properties.

After completing an exhausting analysis, it was found that Public development impacted the Dallas-Fort Worth economy in a form of $3.36 billion income. The property value was identified as $1.81 billion. While the Public development near DART stations created 20,741 construction jobs and $1.3 billion in employee compensation. The article conveys a table where they show what projects were built near each DART station, some of them were: The Irving Convention Center in the station “Irving Convention Center, the Bush Library in the Mockingbird Station, Eisemann Center in the Galatyn Park station and so on until reaching the area of the University of North Texas at Dallas (station and project name).
This public property spending gave a gain of $1,815,333,100, where the direct impact generated $682,884,872 reflected as an additional of indirect activity since contractor and construction firms acquired raw materials. The spending of wages by employees of those suppliers represented another $858,142,497. Thus, the total economic impact from development spending within a quarter-mile of DART stations represents a total of $3,356,360,469. Researchers reached this amount by adding up the direct, indirect and induced effects.

Basing my research on the material reviewed in class, I found that this project carried out by the University of North Texas at Dallas and DART is part of the zoning and master planning in the region of Dallas-Fort Worth since it seeks to provide an adequate transportation within the metroplex area and some suburbs. This project not only facilitated the transportation of millions of people throughout the region, but also enhanced and encouraged business in the surrounding zones of the light trail; generating millions of jobs through public property buildings, rails, and businesses construction.

http://dart.org/about/economicimpact.asp

[Sebastian Ortiz]

The property business as well as the construction business in the DFW area are booming. construction licensing and other requisite that the government needs to approve before hand are very quick to access. DART has been an economic and transportation impact within the city which make the connection and movement of human capital easier and effective and creates economic clusters around the stations. This study gives an accurate amount of money spend on the building of the station and additional revenue for the state (local government) and the individual.

Pushing project like this (Light Rail Transit) can benefit the environment and the economic setting because the movement of people will be more concentrated and the commerce will be located within short distance of the stations. Like most European cities or in the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. the major movement of people and of money are need metro stations. These clusters help the local economy and creates competition within clusters that consumer will create preference to which place have better "amenities" (such as consumer service, products, prices, etc.).