Quito

San Francisco de Quito is the capital of the Province of Pichincha, and moreover the capital of Ecuador. Known simply as “Quito”, it is the second most elevated capital city in South America after La Paz, Bolivia, which stands at 2,580 meters above sea level and sits amid mountains and deep valley in the eastern Andes. The city is crossed by four tectonic faults, 192 ravines and is surrounded by 20 volcanoes, of which three are active. The Metropolitan District of Quito is 55% vegetation and is a recognized bio-diversity hotspot (Tumes-Choco-Magdalena).

Moreover, Quito is known as a cultural capital, with its historic centre being a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site since 1978 because of its status as one of the least-altered and best-preserved central districts in the American continent. In recent years, there has been a noticeable influx of Venezuelan migrants who have fled their country due to internal struggles, and it has become a challenge not only to Quito but to the whole of Ecuador to manage their arrival, which amounts to hundreds of thousands. Ecuador has long been Latin America’s largest recipient of refugees, with the majority fleeting violence and repression in Columbia.

www.quito.gob.ec

Transit Oriented Development Strategy

Summary

The city government of Quito has commenced a large infrastructure project based on a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) strategy and Land Value Capture (LVC) Plans. The project strategy will focus on social inclusion, urban regeneration and the environment . The project will maximize residential, business and recreational space within walking distance of public transportation and will positively impact the welfare of a large proportion of the population. The project will facilitate investment in economic growth, and provide inclusive employment, safe housing, environmental benefits while simultaneously strengthening municipal resources.

Background and objectives

Local governments are increasingly working to achieve low carbon urbanism and mass transit mobility systems. To this end, TOD strategies and LVC instruments have become an attractive and feasible option requiring robust and integrated urban planning supported by strong institutions with sufficient technical capacity.
The municipality of Quito is undertaking the single most important infrastructure investment of its history, the First Line of the Quito Metro (PLMQ for its Spanish acronym). The PLMQ brings significant changes to the existing transport system and will greatly impact the citizens of the city. The strategy looks to foster urban developments that suit each station, enhancing its social, economic and environmental potential, while providing secure places to live and improve the urban quality of many public places in Quito.

The project has the following objectives:

• environmental and social sustainability
• shift away from private automobiles to public transit, aimed at reducing energy consumption, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and improving local air quality,
• Through fostering civic participation, contribute to people’s ownership in meeting social demands for better services and quality public space.
• economic and social contribution
• increase productivity by reducing daily commute times.
• increase density and diversity of land use to create agglomeration economies and help revitalize urban centers and neighborhoods.
• make public services and facilities available for as many citizens as possible.
• safety
• include strategies and interventions to increase road safety, particularly for pedestrian and cyclists, intermodal connections, access and crossings to transit stations.
  

  Metro Tunnel, Quito

• design urban interventions to improve safety and reduce crime by increasing activity in the public realm, including improved lighting and the introduction of monitoring systems and increasing “eyes on the street.”
• economic efficiency
• provide incentives for the local real estate and construction markets to create quality jobs in the city.
• maximize the benefits associated with people living and working near transit stations, especially for the less advantaged classes in society, thereby increasing Metro ridership and reducing journey times, travel distances and congestion
• resilience against Natural Disasters
• support planning for high density buildings in low risk areas to help shift city growth from the periphery to a more compact growth of Quito.
• identify natural and manmade threats around the metro stations that interrupt the service of the first metro line of Quito, or any other mobility options associated with the station areas that endanger user’s wellbeing.
• plan a city wide mobility system based on the integration and efficiency of all of its components.
• adapt to climate change and avoid creating new risks
• provide affordable housing in safe places instead of distantly located and illegal options offered by the informal market,
• avoid displacement of low-income families.

Implementation

The rollout of the project includes the following key dates:

2010 – Project design by Metro Madrid
2013 – Construction of stations El Labrador and La Magdalena
2016 – Commence construction of railway line
2018 – Civil works completion (tunnel and underground stations)
2019 – Project completion

The construction of the first metro line has commenced and it is expected that the system will be operational by the end of 2019. Simultaneously the city government has put in place regulations to encourage real estate development around the different systems of existing mass transport.

Specific activities include:

• • integrate current bus transit system operated by private companies
  • appropriation by the citizens and future users
  • urban development and reactivation of areas served by the metro line
  • transform Quito’s transportation system to a more sustainable system
  • enrich the metro line with pedestrian and bicycle transportation networks
  • establish a fare and a collection system that enables users to travel through different components of the public transportation system
  • design the public space around stations.
  • a city-wide migration to renewable energy sources must become a priority in order to develop a coherent public transportation system.

Financing and resources

The lead agency for the project is the City of Quito. The budget is forecast at 2 billion USD.

Results and impacts

The general results expected include:

• increase buildability, adequate densification and improve urban compactness
• improve urban quality and safety in public spaces
• economic income to be invested in urban improvement projects in the city
• decrease risk in the face of natural events of transport infrastructure
• decrease greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality
• diversification of the types of uses in buildings to increase the supply of activities and decrease the need for private car mobilization
• increase the supply of new, affordable and safe housing at walking distances from public transport

Barriers and challenges

TOD is a market driven strategy. The main challenge is to propose interventions that are attractive to the supply market and produce environmental and economic benefits for the city and citizens. A further challenge is to ensure that risk factors including different climate challenges, current and future, are taken into account as part of the interventions.

Critical issues include:

• Economic debt required for financing the project.
• 16 months away from inauguration no negotiations have been conducted with the bus operators.
• First metro line only covers 22 out of 45 kilometers of Quito’s upper plateau.
• There is no public transportation solution to connect Quito’s upper plateau with the valleys.

 

    

City Profile

Size and population development

Quito follows Guayaquil as the second most populous city in the country. However, if we were to take the Metropolitan District of Quito in comparison to Guayaquil, the former would lead the demographic charts with 2.7 million people living there. The MDQ extends 4,183 square kilometres, with a very low population density in comparison to other Metropolitan capitals of Latin American.

Population composition

In the entire province of Pichicha, in which Quito is located, has around 140,000 indigenious people. The largest racial group identified by the Ecuador’s national census are mestizo, a classification with its origins in the original colonisation of the Americas, with it referring to the children of criollos (Latin Americans of Spanish origin) and indigenous, although the term now simply means mixed ethnicity, with this grouping making up over 80 percent of the population. The remainder is divided into various groups, the most significant being indigenous, largely speakers of Quechua; Afro-Ecuadorians, the dependents of slaves; and a small white population. There is also an immigrant population, with around 2% of the populous speaking a language other than Spanish or Quechua;

Main industries/business

The main industries of Quito belong to the three sectors: the city exports coffee, cacao, sugar, palm oil, and bananas—with Ecuador being the world’s largest exporter of bananas. It is also known for its textiles and for being a popular touristic destination. In 2015, an approximate of 1.5 million international tourists visited the capital, according to the Office of Tourism, largely from Colombia, United States and Perú. Tourism in the city is greatly directed to places of Catholic heritage (churches, sculptures, etc.), museums, and to the textile and night life scenes.

According to Ecuador’s Central Bank, Quito receives significant remittance funds from the one million plus Ecuadorians living abroad. It is also the place were most of the strongest national companies and many transnational ones have anchored themselves, such as the nation’s biggest corporation Petroecuador, and is also the hub of the nation’s automotive industry and the headquarters of TAME, Ecuador’s national airline.

Sources for city budget

Quito has a high rate of tax collection when compared to other capital cities in South America, with a 12% sales tax, a 22% corporate tax rate, and a progressive personal income tax rate that sites around 35%. The province which houses Quito has two types of budget, one designed according to the needs of the province, the Preassigned Budget of Income, and the second being used to fund the institutions, programs and prioritized projects, and it is paid for with federal funding.

Political structure

Quito is at once the capital of Ecuador, of the Province of Pichincha and the seat of the MDQ canton, while houses all of the diplomatic offices from other countries. It is governed by the Metropolitan Council made up of 21 council members. The front man of the council is the Mayor, who is both mayor of the Quito seat and of the Metropolitan District. The council is tasked with promoting the city, ensuring public services, tax collection, public and private transport regulation, and city development planning.

Administrative structure

Ecuador is a country that for administrative purposes is divided into provincias (provinces), cantones (cantons), and political parishes. Quito belongs in the Pichincha province, and in its form of Metropolitan District of Quito it is a canton. Quito, in its most local definition—equivalent to a parish—is the seat (centre) of the MDQ canton. The canton is made up of 55 parishes, and the urban parishes are what is known as Quito. The administration of all the parishes is handled by 9 administrative zones. In each of these, there is a council person assigned by the mayor of Quito in charge of managing the parishes within the zone. These zones were created to decentralize institutional arrangements and to manage civil participation.

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