Partnerships in support of equitable transit-oriented development – such as the Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative in the Twin Cities – have been around for several years. These collaborations bring together local and national philanthropy with non-profit and community-based organizations to ensure that all populations have access to the benefits provided by transit. Some groups, such as the GCC, are focused on ensuring that station area plans around existing fixed-guideway transit consider affordable housing needs and maximize development potential, while others are motivated by workforce development opportunities, mitigating business impacts during transit construction or augmenting access to employment, education and services. Almost all are focused on transit…

The Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) in the San Francisco Bay Area has worked for years to maximize equitable TOD opportunities. GCC commissioned the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) and the Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to conduct an initial feasibility study for a fund that would be targeted to acquiring properties near quality transit for the purposes of building and preserving affordable housing, mixed-use development and other community amenities. This work helped convince the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the MPO, to dedicate $10 million as top-loss funding as long as the fund managers could raise an additional $50 million from private sources. MTC’s ability to leverage non-governmental sources of funding was a key incentive that made the dedication of funds politically feasible with elected officials on the commission, and might not have been as successful if the GCC had not initiated efforts to study the feasibility…

The Denver region is emerging as an innovative leader in the effort to create healthy, affordable, and sustainable communities with a range of housing types and transportation options for everyone. In 2004, voters approved a sales tax increase to fund 122 miles of new rail and bus service. Since then cities along current and future transit lines have been making plans to address opportunities and challenges.

Each year, the Department of Transportation (DOT) invests billions of dollars in transportation programs that shape our communities and influence the way we live and travel. The debate over the next federal surface transportation authorization provides an opportunity to advocate for changes to DOT’s policies and programs to help build a stronger link between the transportation investments funded by the department and the location of housing and jobs in the surrounding communities.

When the USSR launched the Sputnik satellite into Earth’s orbit in 1957, it sparked a two-decade ‘Space Race,’ a competition that also resulted in a period of unprecedented investment in scientific research and education in the United States.

The Center for Transit-Oriented Development has continued to be busy with our research, technical assistance, and sharing of best practices on the connections between transit and development. Over the past few months we’ve released several national research papers, while continuing our applied work in regions across the country and working on several projects that will bear fruit over the summer and fall.