Complete Streets as a Redevelopment Strategy

Arthur C. Nelson
Robert Hibberd
University of Arizona

This article asserts that converting America's main streets and thoroughfares into Complete Streets is an important redevelopment strategy. Although this article will show that they improve safety, their principal purpose—the extent to which they are associated with redevelopment—has not been researched. This article presents the first comprehensive assessment of the role of Complete Streets as a redevelopment strategy. Using statistical analysis applied to 26 Complete Streets in 16 central counties, research reported in this article establishes associations between Complete Streets and increased jobs, people, and households; improved jobs-housing balance; increased commuting via transit, walking, and biking; working from home; and increased multifamily residential rents with respect to proximity, meaning that people are more willing to pay to be close to Complete Streets. Moreover, constituting less than six-tenths of one percent of their central county urbanized land areas between 2013 and 2019 (after the Great Recession but before the COVID-19 pandemic), Complete Streets accounted for disproportionately large shares of central county growth and change. Although the Complete Streets in the research sample cost about $600 million to build (in 2023 dollars), much of which would have been spent anyway in the normal cycle of street rehabilitation and upgrades, it is estimated that they are associated with $6 billion in redevelopment investments. Few economic development programs match this return on investment. Although some evidence indicates gentrification, policy interventions are outlined to help mitigate adverse outcomes. It may be difficult to imagine more cost-effective redevelopment strategies than Complete Streets.