Security first, BART says of Bayfair station changes

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from Inside Bay Area:



Security first, BART says of Bayfair station changes
Minor improvements planned during yearlong safety study
By Martin Ricard, STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 03/16/2008 02:31:22 AM PDT


SAN LEANDRO — Turning the Bayfair BART station into a transit plaza, replete with mixed-use housing and possibly some retail and commercial space, sounds grand.

But before any new ideas about mixed-use development at Bayfair get off the ground, the necessity of dealing with the BART station's safety and security problems seems like a no-brainer, some say.

In an effort to address those concerns and make good on its promise to make Bayfair more pedestrian-friendly, BART recently announced it is embarking on a yearlong project to study and improve the safety and security around the Bayfair station.

The study not only is necessary, said BART planner Tim Chan, it also reflects BART patrons' and neighboring residents' desire to have a transit-oriented development project, known as a TOD, that meets their approval.

"It came out of the community's concerns expressed at our TOD meetings about security," Chan said. "So we decided we needed to study how we can address these safety and security issues, then come up with a project so that we can have the developer incorporate those ideas."

Sometime in the near future, BART will explore, in collaboration with the city and other agencies, the feasibility of making the area surrounding Bayfair BART a mixed-use residential village. The goal: to increase ridership and foot traffic between BART and the mall across the way. .....(more)

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