Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies (2015)

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22 As discussed throughout this guidebook, transit agencies can proactively engage decision makers and other stakeholders in discussions about transit and land use. This chapter pro- vides an overview of a range of tools and tips for enhancing communication and coordination, including: • Partnering, • Using strategic guidebooks, and • Articulating the costs and benefits. This guidebook emphasizes the importance of fostering positive working relationships among key partners. This is particularly true for transit agencies seeking to influence land use decisions at any geographic scale. On their own, transit agencies lack the jurisdictional authority to ensure that land use decisions are transit supportive. As a result, it is paramount that transit agencies collaborate with a broad range of major stakeholders and the general public. Planners, transit agencies, and developers have different constituents, customs, worldviews, values, perceptions, timelines, and definitions of success. These differences can all be blockers to effective negotiations. For example, the research survey indicated that developers rated incen- tives such as expedited approvals and fee waivers as the most helpful tool to coordinate transit and land use. Transit agencies and local governments did not rate developer incentives as highly effective. In another example, transit agencies viewed transit agency comments on development proposals (e.g., subdivision, project permits, entitlements) as part of a formal development process to be highly effective, but local governments and developers did not share this view. Early and continuous discussions and collaboration provide the best outcomes and increase the chances of better project design. Both formal and informal processes of engaging transit in the decision-making process can be effective in fostering collaboration. Informal structures of coordination can be as worthwhile as formal structures of coordination if both the transit agency and the local government value the participation and comments provided by the other. Partnering There are multiple ways in which a transit agency can forge an understanding with other partners that lead to an acceptable outcome for all parties. The discussion that follows highlights how working groups, workshops, educational programs, and monitoring and referrals can be effective partnering tools for a transit agency. The Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program offers several useful tips for building a transit-supportive community in Transit in Small Cities: A Primer for Planning, Siting, C H A P T E R 4 Building a Transit-Supportive Community

Building a Transit-Supportive Community 23 and Designing Transit Facilities in Oregon. Some tips from the primer are summarized in the following: • Go to meetings where your partners are. Often, development projects are mentioned at chamber of commerce or downtown association meetings before a developer starts the appli- cation review process. By attending these meetings, you will learn about development projects early and can build relationships. • Make sure the developer is on board. Demonstrating how transit benefits a private develop- ment may help avoid a potential conflict over transit access. Since many bus stops are located on private property, property owners can ask that stops be relocated. Having written proof that an owner agreed to a stop can minimize future misunderstandings, so always get it in writing. • Don’t let transit be an afterthought. Educate local and county governments at the staff and elected level to help them recognize that transit is a vital component of any development. • Share data on ridership benefits. Tie it to community livability and economic development. Transit agencies may fully understand the benefits of transit, but many local decision makers may need more information.4 Working Groups The use of working groups is among the most effective practices for creating long-term partnerships with regional and local government partners as well as developers. Over time, formal meetings and working groups can build trust between municipal and transit agency staff so that collaboration can occur on an ad hoc basis. For example, Sandy City, UT, and the Utah Transit Authority have cultivated prior collaborations on joint development and a downtown circulator into an informal relationship. Through regular communication, both parties have come to understand the needs and interests of the other. For example, when the Utah Transit Authority releases a request for proposal for one of its parcels, it solicits projects that match the vision of Sandy City and its residents. Regardless of the geographic scale, honesty and transparency matter above all else in working groups. For example, when a developer shares a pro forma with municipal staff, the municipality will understand the developer’s needs, and the developer may be more likely to secure the financial incentives that the development needs to proceed. Developers can also help set expectations for municipal staff regarding the level and character of retail that an infill site or transit-served area could support. Partnerships help ensure that relevant stakeholders are given an opportunity to identify key issues in the planning process. Transit in Small Cities offers several useful tips for forging partnerships: • Identify partners in key departments and agencies. Maintain a reference guide for those with whom you need to work on a regular basis. • Communicate with your land use and transportation partners, whether through formal, scheduled meetings, informal conversations, or both. Communicate frequently enough to build a strong relationship—one where either party is comfortable enough to pick up the phone and have a candid conversation about land use and transit issues. • Develop bus stop location criteria and agreements for private development. Recommend that local governments include these provisions in their zoning codes. • Engage in project development review at the earliest possible stage, such as at the pre-proposal land use conference, which is often held with city or county planning staff. • Establish a citizen committee to focus on pedestrian safety, connections to transit facilities, and other relevant topics.5

24 Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies Workshops and Educational Programs An education and outreach strategy can be developed in order for partners/stakeholders to fulfill their responsibilities in making transit-supportive land uses a part of the community fabric. Educating partners and the public is often a prerequisite to forming a transit-supportive community. Effective practices to increase the understanding of transit-supportive land uses include: • Building strong relationships with partners based on trust to enable candid conversations about land use and transit issues. • Engaging land use agencies, the community, and developers early in project development reviews. • Holding workshops to discuss pedestrian safety, land use mix, and other issues with local jurisdictions, nonprofit organizations, developers, and the public. • Highlighting the benefits of transit-supportive land uses, such as economic development and livability, in order to engage partners’ particular interests. • Holding a developer forum to educate developers about the benefits of TOD and discuss strategies to overcome perceived challenges. • Inviting professionals and groups (such as the Urban Land Institute) with familiarity in implementing TOD to speak to partners and the public about their experiences. Topics can include the fundamentals, a specific issue that local governments or developers are struggling with, or lessons learned from a recent development process. • Preparing a guidebook for local governments and transit agencies to illustrate the character- istics of transit-supportive development with developers. • Developing design guidelines or model ordinances for transit-supportive/transit-oriented development that can be used by local governments as a basis for discussion with policy makers. Following are examples of educational programs: • The Southern California Association of Governments sponsors Toolbox Tuesdays. This training program provides instruction on computer-based tools and education in planning issues such as TOD. • Portland Metro sponsors the Get Centered! program to increase the knowledge of business and property owners, nonprofit groups, and local government staff for making investments along transit lines and in downtown areas and centers. The program includes local agencies sharing their stories, national experts sharing the latest research and best practices, and field trips to other best-practice communities. • In the spring of 2013, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) sponsored an interactive forum with the Urban Land Institute of Southeast Florida/Caribbean to discuss the development opportunities on the proposed Tri-Rail Coastal Link, an 85-mile commuter-rail corridor that connects 28 communities in eastern Miami–Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Approximately 235 developers, city officials, consultants, and other stakeholders attended the forum. The purpose of the forum was to share preliminary city plans for the areas around the proposed station sites and to engage developers in a discussion of what it would take to make the proposed development happen. Prior to the forum, SFRTA produced a document that summarized the city plans for each of the 29 station areas, including a market forecast and strengths and challenges for each station area.6 Monitoring and Referrals As stated previously, transit agencies have the best opportunity to engage local land use plan- ners and developers when zoning reviews or amendments are up for discussion. As a low-cost approach to seek out opportunities for land use planning involvement, transit agencies can

Building a Transit-Supportive Community 25 monitor their geographic area’s land use and zoning agencies to identify when any rezoning or land use changes may affect station areas. Alternatively, some transit agencies have built strong relationships with their local land use agencies and are referred to during the decision-making process when a land use decision will directly affect transit. This approach is best used for fixed assets, such as stations, and can be less helpful when trying to identify land use changes that may affect bus lines. Since transit agencies may receive multiple referrals, they have introduced methods of prioritization to monitor which land use changes that affect many transit types will be most worth the investment of their limited time and resources. Project prioritization criteria will vary from agency to agency based on specific needs and resources. For example, coordination of land use decisions at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is highly influenced by the type of plans or projects. During the long-range and station-area planning process, there is increased interaction around TOD station areas and along transit corridors of importance. MARTA has also prioritized five station areas to coordinate with planners in DeKalb County.7 Coordination on projects involving a regular fixed-route bus service is primarily on an as-needed, project-by-project basis. In areas where fixed-guideway transit exists, some transit agencies focus their monitoring on areas with the greatest density and highest market/TOD potential. For example, WMATA typically takes a hands-off approach to land use and allows the city to take the lead. However, land use coordination by WMATA is increased in areas where WMATA wants to maximize the full potential of transit-supportive station areas. These monitoring and referral practices can provide a valuable opportunity to engage in the land use decision-making process. Fostering relationships with the local land use agencies early on can take some of the monitoring pressures off smaller transit agencies and can help them rely more heavily on referrals. Either way, staying informed about local development plans and land use conversations is an important practice that transit agencies can adopt. The FTA’s Planning for Transit-Supportive Development: A Practitioner’s Guide offers a number of lessons learned for integration of local land use planning and policy with strategies for transit investment. The relevant lessons for effective partnerships are summarized in the following: • Develop a community of champions. Assemble a collaborative team of forward-thinking and dedicated community members. Select champions from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors who represent a broad range of interests. Seek to ensure that these champions com- municate frequently, collaborate closely on goals and agendas, and trust each other. Consider engaging champions through small task forces or committees that meet regularly and can provide information, support, and inspiration. • Educate and engage the public. Educating the public early and often is critical in gaining support. Clearly and effectively articulate the long-term vision for the transit system. Develop a clear and well-defined transit or transit-supportive development message. It is essential that the message be understandable and valuable to a large constituency. Images, key messaging, numbers, quantified results, and benefits need to be carefully planned and consistent. Since there are many challenges in implementing a new transit system or transit-supportive development, performance outcomes are often the best way to explain the objectives, choices, and support needed. Place an emphasis on protecting and enhancing the existing community. • Emphasize the community context. Many components are needed to create a livable com- munity. Transit is an important component, but it is not the only piece of a sustainable com- munity. Throughout the design and planning processes for transit systems and transit-supportive development, transit agencies and local governments should engage the community in devel- oping plans and designs that reflect diverse neighborhoods with a strong sense of community.

26 Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies Give attention to community-building goals instead of focusing solely on mobility objectives. The perspectives of transit agencies and other planning departments should be broadened so that transit is taken as a consideration and is not the only driver of community goals. • Coordinate and collaborate with public agencies. Public agency coordination and collaboration are critical. Organizational structure and institutional policies can help ensure integrated land use and transit planning and implementation. In many cases, even within a single jurisdiction, it is difficult to work past the silos of multiple departments that each have their own missions and obligations. A municipality’s organizational structure that places planning, economic development, transportation, and transit all under the municipality’s purview can greatly streamline the way that transit planning is coordinated. • Form partnerships among agencies. For transit projects controlled by a municipality, coor- dination between the transit agency and the other departments, such as planning, should help streamline planning efforts. Policies to prioritize transit improvements along select corridors and activity centers should be incorporated into citywide plans and programs and translated to street infrastructure investments as well as the new transit service. Cross-departmental coordination can facilitate efficient planning activities for route selections and station locations, as well as actions to encourage and enable transit-supportive development.8 Using Strategic Resources The use of a guidebook or website to highlight the importance of interagency communica- tion, collaboration, and coordination is a common strategy to address challenges and overcome barriers associated with implementing transit-supportive development projects. Many local governments, transit agencies, and nonprofit advocacy groups have developed handbooks or guidebooks related to transit-supportive development. An extensive library of these resources is maintained at Reconnecting America’s Resource Center (http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/ resource-center/). The documents contained within this center are a continuation of the Best Practices database originally funded by the FTA. Following are three examples of communities that use a guidebook or a website to educate partners on transit-supportive land use. Eliciting Transit Agency Inputs to Local Land Use Decisions: Ontario Transit-Supportive Guidelines Transit agencies can develop their own guidance on how and where staff should get involved in land use decisions. One of the leading examples of this practice is the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s 2012 Transit-Supportive Guidelines. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation was one of the first non-local governmental entities to publish a guidebook, called Transit- Supportive Land Use Planning Guidelines, which was released in 1992. In 2012, an updated version of the report was released, providing design standards and illustrations that can be implemented at any geographical scale, whether at a site, area, municipality, or regional level. Guidelines are detailed and reinforced with case examples and links to additional resources and consultation opportunities, with clear instructions on how to access resources. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s 2012 Transit-Supportive Guidelines provide specific examples regarding how and where transit agencies should be involved. The six key elements of meaningful transit agency involvement in local land use decisions addressed in the guidebook are: • Effective communication, consultation, and the fostering of partnerships. Top government officials need to design interagency forums and communication channels that ensure municipal, regional, and provincial (state) departments and agencies are aware of transit agency needs.

Building a Transit-Supportive Community 27 For decisions on regional trip generators like shopping centers, transit agencies need to have an active voice on factors like facility siting and on-site transit service design. • Coordination. Coordination of municipal/regional/provincial and transit planning activities is needed, at minimum, in these areas: review of proposed densities and road networks by tran- sit planners to ensure optimized bus services; review of official plans, transportation master plans, secondary plans, and district plans; opportunities to propose requirements for developers to incorporate transit infrastructure, such as stop facilities, into development plans; and review of draft bylaws by transit agencies to ensure that regulations regarding lot frontages, densities, and permitted uses along transit routes will support the service and financial objectives of the transit agency. • Transit and community benefits. Support for transit-supportive land use changes can be built by clearly linking the benefits of expanded transit services to larger, longer-term future visions for communities. The best available local evidence needs to be brought to bear that ties transit improvements to such hoped-for outcomes as economic development, urban regenera- tion, environmental protection, energy, land conservation, and the creation of fully accessible, complete communities. • Inclusiveness. Effective planning and consultation should actively engage all stakeholders in land use decision making at every stage of the development process to identify potential win–win solutions and stave off concerns that can become, if not handled properly and early enough, irreparably divisive. • Strategic partnerships. Forging alliances between public- and private-sector interests can tap into the diverse assets and resources offered by different groups to promote and facilitate more transit-supportive environments. The special tax statuses and regulatory powers of govern- ments can complement the access to capital markets and entrepreneurial instincts of private interests in mutually beneficial ways in taking on the risks often inherent with TOD. • Evaluation. Municipalities should partner with transit agencies to evaluate the positive contributions of design guidebooks and site plan controls in creating financially successfully transit-supportive communities. Matched-pair comparisons of the real estate market perfor- mance of otherwise comparable communities that have and have not embraced transit-friendly design practices can be carried out to gauge economic benefits.9 Urban Regeneration Through TOD: Central Maryland TOD Strategy The 2009 Central Maryland TOD Strategy: A Regional Action Plan for Transit-Centered Com- munities provides a regional strategy to link transit and community development. The strategy was prepared by the community-based Central Maryland Transportation Alliance and a steering committee made up of several local and state government agencies and community organizations. A key strategy identified by the community planners of the greater Baltimore region focuses on small improvements that have the potential to signal a neighborhood turnaround and thus help leverage private investments and, ultimately, TOD. In a time of fiscal constraints and risk- averse real estate markets, the report notes that not all transit-supportive investments need to be substantial infrastructure upgrades or new transit lines. Improvements to bicycle and pedestrian access and safety can boost transit ridership and seed the transformation of neighborhoods into more people-oriented, transit-supportive areas. The Central Maryland TOD Strategy acknowledges that physical redesigns alone will not turn around struggling neighborhoods. Institutional reforms are also needed. The report calls for the formation of a TOD strategy steering committee made up of key departments from local and state agencies as well as private and neighborhood interests. Ideally, a designated TOD coor- dinator would be hired and tasked with working across government departments to acceler- ate TOD implementation. The coordinator would become the point person to see to it that the

28 Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies recommendations of the steering committee are given a full airing and coordinated as well as pos- sible among local and state agencies. The report closes with five strategies that can bring attention to and extend the reach of TOD in the region: • Complete existing projects to demonstrate high-quality transit-centered communities in the region. • Make new investments in key regional locations for TOD to build momentum for market- driven TOD and address neighborhood change. • Modify local, regional, and state policies to support TOD as the standard development practice. • Construct transit and multimodal transportation systems to build the market and expand the geographic reach of transit and TOD. • Foster cross-sector partnerships and build local capacity for TOD implementation among all stakeholders.10 Metropolitan TOD: Denver Regional Council of Governments TOD The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) launched a TOD program in 2006, mainly in the form of a website and outreach program that provide relevant, locally packaged, and timely information to policy makers, business leaders, and the public on TOD activities throughout the region. Increasingly, websites, blogs, and other real-time media have become the 21st century version of transit-supportive design guidebooks. DRCOG uses online resources, an idea exchange, and best practices to promote TOD throughout the greater Denver area: • Online resources. The TOD website (http://tod.drcog.org/) provides an extensive compila- tion of resources including case studies, reports, interactive maps, station-area plans, and profiles and information on development activity in current and planned transit station areas (Figure 4-1). A guest blog has become a popular venue for local residents to share their views and opinions on all aspects of transit development in the region. • Planner idea exchange. DRCOG holds regular meetings and brown-bag sessions for local government planning staff to share their experiences in planning for and implementing TOD and to learn from subject-matter experts on topics of particular interest. • TOD best practices series. DRCOG has sponsored a series of workshops in collaboration with the Urban Land Institute and other organizations that bring together members of the public and private sector for discussions on timely topics related to transit and urban development.11 It is also useful for transit agencies to encourage the participation of local residents and transit champions when local governments are creating a vision for a transit corridor. This will make it easier to develop transit-supportive land uses in an established neighborhood. Without their partici- pation, residents may react negatively to a proposed project, particularly one that increases density. Developers seeking to advance transit-supportive projects may also find it helpful for municipal and transit agency staff to communicate the benefits of a development to the public. For example, traffic impact assessments of a mixed-use development can quantify positive traffic changes such as overall reduced driving behavior. When residents understand the total impact of compact development on driving behavior, they may be more willing to support a developer’s project. Articulating the Costs and Benefits Local government land use planners and private developers may not fully understand the transit service and operational issues related their land use decisions, the benefits and need for transit, or the relationship between transit and land use. Transit agencies can explain various

Building a Transit-Supportive Community 29 transit requirements and make the case for including transit officials in future land use decisions. In making their case, transit agencies can explain the costs and benefits discussed in the following. Costs One challenge in creating transit-supportive places is the lack of understanding about the necessary elements of transit-supportive land uses and the importance that new developments incorporate those elements regardless of whether transit currently serves the area. The respon- sibility for developing transit-supportive land uses falls on all partners: local governments, developers, and transit agencies. Local governments must articulate transit-supportive elements through their comprehensive plans, zoning codes, and design standards to ensure that what is built is consistent with the desired transit-supportive development near transit. Developers and financial institutions must be willing to take the risk to develop compact, mixed-use developments even if it is outside their comfort zone. Transit agencies must be advocates for transit-supportive development along their existing and future transit routes. Transit agencies can help local governments and developers better appreciate the drivers and fundamentals of transit network and corridor planning. For example, the Oregon Transportation Source: http://tod.drcog.org/. Figure 4-1. Sample strategic website.

30 Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies and Growth Management Program’s Transit in Small Cities gives across-the-board guidance on the basic transit planning process, provides tips for success, and as shown in Figure 4-2, illustrates some of the benefits of direct transit routes in regard to downtown areas. In the land use planning process, transit planners can explain the measures needed to enhance street design, improve destination accessibility, and minimize the distance to transit. Under- standing these measures is essential because these three factors have a significant impact on ridership. For example, the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANta), which operates the LANta bus system, published Transit Supportive Land Use for the Lehigh Valley in 2013. The report discusses why the site planning elements it sets forth are important for effective transit service. It also provides a series of vignettes that illustrate the amount of time that is required for a bus to leave the main thoroughfare to directly serve individual developments. The LANta report explains the impacts of multiple detours on an individual bus route’s round-trip running time, recovery time, frequency of service, and the number of buses required to maintain a given frequency.12 Benefits Transit providers have opportunities to build alliances with the public and key decision makers throughout the decision-making process by articulating the benefits of transit. Early and frequent public involvement will help educate non-riders about the benefits of transit for the community as a whole (see Figure 4-3). The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) publishes a summary of the benefits of transit in its annual Public Transportation Fact Book. The fact book contains useful national aggregate statistical data covering all aspects of the transit industry in the United States and Canada that can help explain the benefits of transit. A summary of the benefits is provided at http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/ptbenefits/Pages/default.aspx. Source: Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program (2013). Figure 4-2. Sample page from Transit in Small Cities primer. Figure 4-3. Range of benefits for transit-supportive land use decisions.

Building a Transit-Supportive Community 31 A transit agency can publish materials to help convey the value of a transit system to the community. For example, WMATA articulated the benefits of transit through the publication of Making the Case for Transit: WMATA Regional Benefits of Transit. Making the Case for Transit began with the premise that without transit, the region would look and operate very differently than it does today. By imagining the region without transit, WMATA explained transit’s role and value to the Washington economy.13 The study was not a formal cost–benefit analysis. Instead, it presented the benefits of transit in several ways to demonstrate the magnitude of its impact. The study showed that while transit is an integral part of many of these benefits, the impacts brought about by zoning, development decisions, and long-term transit-supportive policies at the local and state levels can significantly affect these benefits. The public can be an important ally for transit agencies during land use decision-making processes at any scale. Sample public engagement methods are provided in Figure 4-4. Land use decisions are often influenced more by personal stories than by statistics or reports. For that reason, it is important during land use planning processes to encourage the public to explain the value of transit to their daily lives in their own words. Summary of Resources and Tools Table 4-1 and Table 4-2 list resources and tools for building a transit-supportive community. Source: Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program (2013). Figure 4-4. Sample public engagement methods. Table 4-1. Transit-supportive resources. Organization Publication Website MARTA Transit-Oriented Guidelines http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/assets/ Uploads/MARTATODGuidelines11-2010-Final.pdf Chicago Transit Authority Transit Friends Development Guide–Station Area Typology http://www.cct.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/ 11StationAreaTypology2009.pdf Pace Suburban Bus Service Transit Supportive Guidelines http://www.pacebus.com/guidelines/Pace_Design_ Guidelines.pdf NJ TRANSIT Transit Friendly Land Use Handbook http://www.njtransit.com/tm/tm_servlet.srv? hdnPageAction=CorpInfoTo#Handbook FTA Planning for Transit-Supportive Development: A Practitioner’s Guide http://www.fta.dot.gov/16046_16042.html (continued on next page)

32 Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies Organization Tool Website LA Metro TOD Toolkit http://www.metro.net/projects/toolkit/ Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments TOD in the Washington metro area http://www.mwcog.org/transportation/activities/tlc/ program/tod.asp Denver Regional Council of Governments TOD program – online tools https://tod.drcog.org/ Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Transit-Oriented Development Program http://www.vta.org/projects-and-programs/Programs/ Projects-Studies-and-Programs-TransitOriented- Development-TOD-Program Metropolitan Council Transit-Oriented Development plan http://www.metrotransit.org/tod Reconnecting America’s Resource Center Online best practices database for TOD http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/resource- center/ Table 4-2. TOD online tools. Table 4-1. (Continued). Organization Publication Website Ontario Ministry of Transportation Transit-Supportive Guidelines http://conf.tac-atc.ca/english/transit/pdfs/transit- supportive-guidelines.pdf Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program Transit in Small Cities: A Primer for Planning, Siting, and Designing Transit Facilities in Oregon http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/PT/resources/ guidance-library/transit-in-small-cities.pdf WMATA Making the Case for Transit: WMATA Regional Benefits of Transit https://www.wmata.com/pdfs/planning/WMATA %20Making%20the%20Case%20for%20Transit %20Final%20Report%20Jan-2012.pdf LANta Transit Supportive Land Use for the Lehigh Valley http://www.lantabus.com/planning-and-studies/