The Federal Transit Administration recently issued $17.6 million in grants to 20 communities in 16 states to support transit-oriented development projects; part of pilot program that aims to encourage ridership by developing housing and businesses near transit corridors.
[Above photo by FTA]
For this round of funding via the FTA’s Transit-Oriented Development or TOD planning program, the projects receiving grants contain an affordable housing component and will require no local matching funds.
“Transportation and housing are the two biggest costs for most Americans,” said FTA Acting Administrator Veronica Vanterpool in a statement. “[This] funding will help create affordable places to live, while bringing down the costs of transportation for the people who live there.”
A project overseen by the Maryland Transit Administration – a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation – is receiving a grant via this round of TOD planning program funding.
The MTA received $550,000 to create a TOD implementation plan for the West Baltimore Red Line Station. The Red Line is a planned rapid transit connection between Woodlawn in western Baltimore County and Johns Hopkins-Bayview in southeast Baltimore.
The FTA added that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA provides a total of $68.9 million in funding for the TOD planning program through 2026; a 38 percent increase over the funding provided by the previous five-year surface transportation reauthorization funding measure.
Since 2015, FTA said it has provided approximately $122 million in federal support to fund TOD planning activities.