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ANDRIANA ABARIOTES JOINS RECONNECTING AMERICA BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
Reconnecting America CEO John Robert Smith cites her outstanding skill set in the arena of community development and affordable housing

LEVERAGING FEDERAL TRANSIT FUNDS TO PROMOTE JOB CONNECTIVITY, AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Reconnecting America offers ideas on how to improve federal New Starts and Small Starts project justification criteria

RECONNECTING AMERICA ENDORSES LIVABLE COMMUNITIES ACT AMENDMENT
Letter from RA, Transportation for America and LOCUS backs creation of funding tools for TOD infrastructure

Best Practices 
Case Studies on Transit and Livable Communities in Rural and Small Town America
Offers a dozen examples of small towns and rural regions working to make their communities more livable · PDF

Bus Rapid Transit and Transit Oriented Development: Case Studies on Transit Oriented Development Around Bus Rapid Transit Systems in North America and Australia
Provides examples of BRT-based TOD along corridors Brisbane, Australia; Cleveland, Ohio; Boston, Mass.; and Ottawa, Ontario · PDF

Bus and Rail Transit Preferential Treatments in Mixed Traffic
This synthesis series reports on current knowledge and practice, in a compact format, · PDF

Projects  Feed-icon-12x12
MAKING THE TWIN CITIES MORE WALKABLE
New CTOD report provides methodology for assessing and boosting the walkability of a place

CAPTURING THE VALUE OF TRANSIT
New report by Center for Transit-Oriented Development released

FINANCING TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Policy Options and Strategies in the San Francisco Bay Area

Making The Twin Cities More Walkable

Making The Twin Cities More Walkable

New CTOD report provides methodology for assessing and boosting the walkability of a place

Changing demographics and housing preferences as well as concerns about quality of life are boosting the demand for walkable urbanism and transit-oriented development in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region as elsewhere in the U.S. The Twin Cities’ real estate market must be able to provide for this demand in order to preserve the region’s economic competitiveness, but a recent study by the Brookings Institution found the Twin Cities ranked below average in the number of “regionally significant walkable places.” Brookings found only two such existing places – the downtowns in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. As part of an effort to promote walkable, transit-oriented places in the Twin Cities, the Center for Transit Oriented Development has just completed a study outlining an approach for transforming existing activity centers into walkable places.

(July 23, 2009)

Capturing the Value of Transit

New report by Center for Transit-Oriented Development released

Over the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that the presence of transit can increase property values and result in valuable development opportunities. In this era of constrained transit funding and widespread demand for new and expanded transit systems, policy makers, transit planners and elected officials are increasingly interested in harnessing a portion of the value that transit confers to surrounding properties to fund transit infrastructure or related improvements in station areas. This idea, known as “value capture,” is much discussed in planning, transit, and local government circles. However, confusion abounds. Where does the value come from? What is the best way to measure it? And, most importantly, what is the best way to capture this value?

Those are the questions addressed in "Capturing the Value of Transit," a new report by Reconnecting America's Center for Transit-Oriented Development.

The Center for TOD is the only national nonprofit effort dedicated to providing best practices, research and tools to support market-based transit-oriented development. We partner with both the public and private market sectors to strategize about ways to encourage the development of high-performing TOD projects around transit stations and to build transit systems that maximize the development potential.

The Center for TOD is a partnership of the national nonprofit Reconnecting America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Strategic Economics, an urban economics firm in Berkeley, CA.

(November 19, 2008)

Financing Transit-Oriented Development

Policy Options and Strategies in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Center for Transit-Oriented Development prepared this white paper to help the Metropolitan Transportation Commission consider alternative methods for providing regional funding for transit-oriented development in the San Francisco Bay Area. The report outlines the need for such a funding source, case examples of other Metropolitan Planning Organization programs, and key considerations in implementing a new program targeted to this purpose.

(November 17, 2008)

Opportunities for equitable transit-oriented development

Somerville Community Corp. study for city of Somerville

Somerville: Reconnecting America worked with the Somerville Community Corporation to identify needs and opportunities for equitable transit-oriented development in the City of Somerville, with a focus on the planned extension of the Green Line. The report highlights demographic and real estate trends, and outlines a series of strategies for achieving mixed-income TOD.

(November 17, 2008)

Mixed-Income TOD

The Center for TOD was funded by the FTA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to examine the role of transit in helping to create and preserve housing affordability and mixed-income communities, the characteristics of households living near fixed-guideway transit, the interplay between housing and transportation costs, urban form and transit accessibility, the tools that are being used to promote mixed-income transit-supportive communities, and the roles that all levels of government (federal, state, region, municipal) can play.

(May 13, 2007)

Making the Case for Mixed-income TOD in the Denver Region

Mixed-income TOD has the potential to meaningfully address the growing affordability crisis in the Denver region. This report, which was commissioned by the Enterprise Community Partners of Denver, concludes that there is a growing demand for housing near transit, and a closing window of opportunity to develop it in a sustainable way with mixed-income housing.

(May 5, 2007)

TOD Typology and Strategic Plan for Denver

Denver is building 119 miles of rail and 70 new stations in six years, and the CTOD has helped develop a “TOD Typology” for the city and the county that categorizes stations according to seven ”types“ (downtown, urban neighborhood, commuter town center, etc.) and suggests a land use mix, scale, housing types, and station function for each type. CTOD has also helped draft a TOD strategic plan to prioritize planning and resources depending on the development potential of stations. The intent is to help provide certainty for communities and for developers.

(May 4, 2007)

Transit and Urban Form

Reconnecting America convened transportation and land use planners in Dallas in early 2006 to launch an effort to create performance standards and techniques resulting in better integration of transit and urban design. We continue to look for partners to help research best practices and develop case studies.

(May 3, 2007)

TOD, Transit, and the Private Sector, at Railvolution's TOD Marketplace

TOD is typically a complex public/private partnership. Reconnecting America organized the TOD Marketplace at Railvolution to help bridge the gap between the public and private sectors and provide a forum in which developers, investors, transit agencies, cities and communities can meet, greet and talk about the art of the deal.

(May 1, 2007)

TOD and Economic Development

Congress made ”economic development“ a funding criteria for the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts/Small Starts funding programs, along with land use and cost effectiveness. But there has been a lack of consensus on how to measure and predict ”economic development“ and on how to implement it as a funding criteria. Reconnecting America commissioned several ”white papers“ on the topic for a forum in Washington D.C. on Dec. 5, 2006.

(May 1, 2007)

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