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.

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.

Reconnecting America’s Gloria Ohland and Shelley Poticha co-wrote and co-edited this richly illustrated book about streetcars and the tremendous private investment they help generate. There are case studies of the most robust new systems and the ways they’ve been used to leverage ambitious public goals like affordability and high-quality public space, and chapters on planning, financing and the more technical aspects of building a system, and also a history of streetcars as a public/private venture. This work was a partnership with APTA, the Community Streetcar Coalition, and corporate sponsors.

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.

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.