News

QueensWay & the Case for Enhanced Property Values

July 10th, 2013

The mission of Friends of the QueensWay is to shape a shared vision: the creation of a linear park, extending 3.5 miles from Rego Park to Ozone Park. The benefits of creating new park space are numerous, with the ultimate goal being that the QueensWay will improve the quality of life of Queens residents. The park will catalyze economic development and job creation, support local small businesses, upgrade environmental conditions, celebrate the diversity of Queens and improve public health and active living for thousands of visitors and park users. While each of those benefits deserves the treatment of a full post, here we’d like to hone in on one particular benefit of creating the QueensWay: enhanced property values.

Intuitively, creating beautiful public space along the abandoned LIRR corridor would add value to the area.  Specifically, we believe that the creation of the QueensWay would provide a significant benefit to homeowners with property adjacent to, and near the trail. Research consistently demonstrates that real estate values are positively impacted by the creation of urban greenways and trails.

• From Trail Towns to TroD: Trails and Economic Development—In this research brief, the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a 150,000 member national non-profit that has developed over 20,000 miles of trails along re-purposed rail corridors, lays out a compelling case for creating trails as a civic amenity that drives economic development.

• “Trails as Economic Engines The amenity value of trails translates into increased property values and enhanced tax revenue for communities. In a study on the impact of trails on adjacent property values in Indianapolis, Lindsey et al. (2003) found that proximity to a greenway generally has a statistically significant, positive effect on property values.”

• Nicholls and Crompton (2005) note that ‘linear green spaces, of which greenways are a prime example, maximize the number of properties that can be positioned adjacent or nearby to them. As a result, a higher number of properties’ values are enhanced and the impact on the property tax base is greater’
• Walk Score, an organization that promotes walkable neighborhoods by providing quantifiable data assessing the ease of walkability in a neighborhood, also provides evidence that suggests homebuyers are increasingly looking for housing that makes walking feasible as a transportation option. Walk Score’s algorithm has gained traction with major real estate search services, including Zillow and Trulia.  From a 2009 CEOs for Cities report, Walking the Walk, How Walkability Raises Home Values in US Cities:
  • Homes located in more walkable neighborhoods—those with a mix of common daily shopping and social destinations within a short distance—command a price premium over otherwise similar homes in less walkable areas. Houses with the above average levels of walkability command a premium of about $4,000 to $34,000 over houses with just average levels of walkability in the typical metropolitan areas studied. To read more of this report click here.

• In a Trust for Public Land monograph, The Economic Benefits of Land Conservation, Chapter 1 The Impact of Parks and Open Spaces on Property Taxes, John L. Crompton, Texas A&M University, the author reviews four studies, and concludes that there is a preponderance of evidence that parks and open space generate increased property tax revenue and yield a better return on investment than development.