Sycamore Light Rail Station

Sycamore Station—the east end of the light rail system in Mesa, Arizona—is the proposed location for 300 units of affordable housing. The project is moving through the review process and funding is dependent on affordable housing tax credits. It is one of the first transit-oriented development projects proposed since the onset of the “Great Recession.”

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), City of Mesa, and the ASU Urban Planning Program partnered to prepare the health impact assessment (HIA). LISC has established a $50 million revolving fund to incent, leverage, and guide development in key station areas along the nearby light rail line. As a component of providing funding, LISC established a set of criteria—one of those criteria being the preparation of an HIA. To ensure that HIA preparation doesn’t slow a project or affect potential funding, a unique approach was taken for HIA preparation.

Rather than requiring an HIA for every development project, an innovative approach was identified that resulted in the completion of an HIA for the entire light rail transit planning area, which is approximately a half-mile radius of the station. The HIA recommendations will serve as the basis for standards and guidelines that will be a component of the LISC revolving fund criteria and by the City of Mesa for the zoning and site plan review process.