Land Use and Property Value Change along the Blue Line Transit

in Minneapolis, MN

Tanner Borgen

Blue Line (Hiawatha Line) Light Rail Transit• Completed Construction in

2004 and runs 12.3 miles line and makes stops along 19 stations• Connects Target Field

(Downtown Minneapolis) to the Mall of America, it also makes stops along the Minnesota Vikings Stadium and Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport

Research Question

Stecker (2012) states: “Light rail transit systems are becoming increasingly popular in metropolitan cities. It is important to know the impact that transit systems bring within communities.”

Has there been any change in Property Values and Land Use along the Blue Line in Minneapolis, MN

Data All data was obtained from MetroGIS DataFinder Catalog

Hennepin Parcel data from 2002 and 2011

Estimated Housing Value

Generalized Land Use from 2000 and 2010

Transit Routes updated weekly

Some values for 2002 and 2011 parcel value were never recorded, and therefore were listed as 0.

This could have altered my results, also the most recent data I could find was 2011 in estimated property values and 2010 in land use values. Finding more recent data

Spatial Tradition

“The spatial tradition abstracts certain aspects of reality,” (Pattison 1964, 215).

Spatially I am trying to find if there is a difference between the areas near the light rail and areas that are farther away from the light rail. Thinking about this on paper may be difficult, but representing it through a map will greatly help in the understanding of the research topic.

Property Values along the Blue Line from 2002 to 2011

Value in Dollars

2002 Hennepin County Parcels

2011 Hennepin County Parcels

Change in Property Values from 2002 to 2011

Value in Dollars

Land Use along the Blue Line

Generalized Land Use

Results The installment of the light rail lead the increase in property value

along the lines, especially on the eastern side and a few areas in downtown Minneapolis

The decrease in property value in downtown Minneapolis could be related to the recent economic depression that hit the United States

“By providing a travel alternative, light rail transit decreases transportation costs in areas close to stations, creating the incentive for households to locate near it. Developers respond by building multi-family housing, and businesses move to these denser areas to serve newly relocated households,” (Hurst and West 2013)

There was not much land use change along the line, I could not see any patterns to show that the light rail changed the land use

References

Debrezion, G., Pels, E., and Rietveld, P., 2010, The Impact of Rail Transport on Real Estate Prices: An Empirical Analysis of the Dutch Housing Market, Urban Studies Journal Limited, 997-1014

Hurst, N. B., and West S. E., 2014, Public transit and urban redevelopment: The effect of light rail transit on land use in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Regional Science and Urban Economic, 57-72

Pattison, W. D., 1964, The Four Traditions of Geography, The Journal of Geography, 211-216

Stecker, N. S., A GIS Analysis on the Effects of the Hiawatha Light Rail on Single-Family Residential Property Market Values, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, 1-12