Transit-oriented development strategy in Taiwan: An application of land value capture

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been widely used in many countries to create more sustainable cities. In 1983, the “Taipei City Self-Ordinance for Land Use Zoning Regulation” was introduced to implement a TOD-equivalent design concept even though the term “TOD” was not yet used worldwide. The regulation specifically allowed any new development within a 500 m radius catchment area of a main public transport station which followed Taipei City's urban planning strategies to have a floor area ratio (FAR) reward up to 30% more than the original FAR (Rule No. 80-4). To strategically plan for TOD, Taipei City has developed a comprehensive TOD strategy with four development aspects, ten development strategies and 32 planning principles. The motivation for private developers to follow Taipei City's TOD strategy is the TOD FAR reward. Value capture, an important funding mechanism for public transport infrastructure, has been implemented in Taipei City's TOD strategy to provide a sustainable public transport system. In order to investigate the impacts of TOD strategy in the form of property value uplift at micro and macro levels, trend analysis and difference in differences modelling are constructed. Model results confirm a significant property value uplift at the micro-level. This review has two strong policy uses. First, it can be a starting point to help cities without a TOD strategy to develop a plan. Second, it can help cities, particularly high population density cities, with an existing TOD plan to review their own TOD plan.