COSTA MESA, CA—With the population aging out of the workforce and Millennials leaving OC, the region's economic health depends on transit projects and diverse housing opportunities, said speakers at ULI Orange County/Inland Empire's program “Rail and TOD: Getting on the Right Track” held here at the Santa Ana Country Club here last week. The program was attended by about 100 professionals representing architectural, engineering, transportation, entitlement, development and various consulting firms, in addition to cities and agencies.

ULI has been focusing on this subject in the region since 2006, a time when finding local consultants and developers in the county who knew the ins and outs of designing and building a TOD was nonexistent. ULI member Matt Shannon, managing director of Urbanus Group, who co-chaired the committee that organized the program, shared the results of a ULI study called Reality Check 2.0 and the MyPlaceOC.org website used for conducting that study. Shannon said, “The population of Orange County is aging out of the workforce, and the Millennial generation is leaving OC. What is understood is that the economic health of OC is dependent on reversing the exodus. Reasons for this demographic leaving varies, but high on the list of qualities desired were better multifaceted transit, diverse housing opportunities and walkable communities.”

Jennifer Bergener, director of rail and facilities for OCTA and managing director of LOSSAN (inter-county rail transit), gave a brief overview of the life and death of past rail transit in Southern California and the failure to resurrect a fully connected rail transit through the Centerline Project (Measure M1). The primary reason cited for the Centerline failure was lack of political will at the local level, she said..