Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning

Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for approximately $25.79 million of funding under the Pilot Program for TOD Planning (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance #20.500). As required by federal transit law and subject to funding availability, funds will be awarded competitively to support comprehensive planning associated with new fixed guideway and core capacity improvement projects. FTA anticipates minimum grant awards of $250,000 and maximum grant awards of $2,000,000. Synopses and full announcement are posted on Grants.gov and FTA Website as opportunity FTA-2018-004-TPE. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Grants.gov website by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on 7/23/2018. As outlined in statute, the Pilot Program for TOD Planning is intended to fund comprehensive planning that supports economic development, ridership, multimodal connectivity and accessibility, increased transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and mixed-use development near transit stations. The program also encourages identification of infrastructure needs and engagement with the private sector. Consistent with statutory direction, FTA is seeking comprehensive planning projects covering an entire transit capital project corridor, rather than proposals that involve planning for individual station areas or only a small section of the corridor. To ensure any proposed planning work reflects the needs and aspirations of the local community and results in concrete, specific deliverables and outcomes, transit project sponsors must partner with entities with land use planning authority in the transit project corridor to conduct the planning work. The Pilot Program for TOD Planning helps support FTA’s mission of improving public transportation for America’s communities by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning around a new fixed guideway or core capacity improvement project. Per statute, any comprehensive planning funded through the program must examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations. Webinar: FTA will host a webinar on this funding opportunity at 2 p.m. ET Thursday, June 14 at https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/fta-tod-pilot. The webinar will provide an overview of the program, describe eligible applicants and projects, and provide an opportunity for attendees to obtain answers to other questions. (Note: audio and video will be provided through the link above; there is no separate call-in number. Advance registration is not offered. The webinar will be recorded and posted afterward on the FTA website at https://www.transit.dot.gov/TODPilot.)