Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is an integrated approach to land use and transportation development that creates long-term prosperity for society at large. TOD that is equitable and sustainable fosters healthy and prosperous communities, in which diverse groups of people have greater mobility choices and access to opportunity. If done right, TOD can have a myriad of social, environmental and economic benefits for people and communities, from reduced costs of living, better access to jobs, and economic growth, to healthier lifestyles and, through reduced automobile use, important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Developers, practitioners and policy makers are increasingly embracing TOD. However, absent concerted interventions to strengthen financing, practice, and policy, TOD will not produce the range of outcomes, particularly the equitable outcomes, we seek.

In order to strengthen each of these facets of equitable TOD, Living Cities seeks to:

• Promote a systematic focus on equitable outcomes in TOD practice and policy;
• Advance regional innovation that integrates equity, regional practice, and finance; and
• Deepen, through research and strategic investment, the field’s understanding of how financing tools and systems can advance financing of equitable TOD

Current Investments and Initiatives

Sustainable Communities Boot Camp
In January 2011, Living Cities hosted the Sustainable Communities Boot Camp. Participating regions received up to $5 million each from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, which supports efforts to integrate planning across disciplines. The Boot Camp promoted a comprehensive framework for regional planning and development based on economic strategy, equity, finance, collaboration and data. To read more about the Boot Camp, click here.

Sustainable Communities Action Guide

Following Living Cities’ highly successful Sustainable Communities Boot Camp, Living Cities commissioned from the Institute for Sustainable Communities an “Action Guide” which will provide field leaders with guidance on how to integrate the Boot Camp’s framing elements into regional practice. The guide is slated for publication at the end of 2011.

Transit Oriented Affordable Housing Fund

In March 2011, Living Cities’ Catalyst Fund closed a $3,000,000 loan to the Bay Area Transit- Oriented Affordable Housing Fund, sponsored by the Great Communities Collaborative, a 24-member collective of Bay Area nonprofits, national organizations, and regional philanthropic entities. This Fund will provide early-stage financing for housing and mixed-use developments in mixed-income TOD communities. For more information about the Fund, please click here.

Central Corridor Funders’ Collaborative
Living Cities is a member of the Central Corridor Funders’ Collaborative, a coalition of local and national funders working with the community as well as the public and private sectors to unlock the transformative potential of the coming Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line connecting Saint Paul and Minneapolis. A key underlying tenet of the Twin Cities effort is that the Central Corridor Light Rail Line—a $1 billion project set for completion in 2014—has the potential to transform the lives of people and places closest to the line. Many of these individuals and businesses have not benefited from previous development in the region. The initiative also has great potential to concentrate population and investment in this corridor and away from less sustainable development. Collaborative members envision stable, thriving neighborhoods throughout the Central Corridor that reflect community identities and link all people to regional opportunities and local amenities.

Past Investments and Initiatives

Great Communities Collaborative
In 2008, Living Cities invested $250,000 in The Great Communities Collaborative, a group of foundations and nonprofits working to ensure that the San Francisco Bay Area is made up of healthy, thriving neighborhoods that are affordable to all and linked to regional opportunities by a premier transit network. Members of the collaborative have combined their respective expertise and working with partners around the region to:

• Shape plans for specific transit-oriented developments in Bay Area communities and encourage resident participation in planning for those developments
• Create tools that will help community leaders make better decisions about transit-oriented developments across the Bay Area and help citizens better understand, participate in, and influence plans for TOD
• Secure increased private and public funding that will help to catalyze sustainable and equitable transit-oriented development in the Bay Area

The Great Communities Collaborative has been recognized as a nationally leading initiative to advance equitable transit-oriented development, and has been the subject of a number of case studies, including one for the Sustainable Communities Boot Camp (click here).