Beginning a Conversation on Equitable Transit Oriented Development
Taxpayers in the Puget Sound region have invested nearly $15 billion to build up to 100 new transit centers by 2025. The transit centers and the development that accompanies the transit centers will largely shape how this region accommodates growth and encourages economic development. Previous light rail investments in South Seattle demonstrate several challenges that accompany transit investments. The Puget Sound Regional Council reports that light rail investments in South Seattle displaced local businesses and escalated land values near transit centers, thereby limiting opportunities to develop transit oriented affordable housing.1 Similar to South Seattle, many of the planned transit centers are to be located in the region’s most dense and diverse communities. This fact raises a critical planning question, how can this region encourage transit and transit oriented development without displacing established neighborhoods?
To answer that question, the federal government recently awarded a $5 million grant to a Puget Sound regional consortium2 to encourage equitable transit oriented development. With over 1,000 grant applicants, the Puget Sound region was one of 45 award recipients selected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (“HUD”). In all, HUD released nearly $100 million in grant funding with the goal of connecting housing with jobs, schools, and transportation. Grant insiders report that the Puget Sound region received substantial grant funding because of the grant’s emphasis on planning for equitable transit oriented development. Specifically, the $5 million grant for the Puget Sound region will fund:
- Neighborhood Engagement: Engage low-income and minority residents in the transportation and transit oriented development planning process. (~$500,000)
- An Affordable Housing Action Strategy: Establish an affordable housing land bank that acquires property near transit centers for affordable housing purposes.3 The strategy will also develop new land use and regulatory tools to encourage transit oriented development. (~$1,500,000)
- Transit-Corridor Planning: Establish a forum for local governments to act cooperatively, rather than competitively, to enact regional housing, transportation, and economic development goals. (~$1,000,000)
- Development Modeling: Develop a computer-modeling tool that allows planners to visualize, communicate, and analyze the cost/benefits of different development scenarios. (~$750,000)
- Pilot Projects: Enact equitable transit oriented development pilot projects in Bel-Red, Northgate, and the Tacoma Dome transit centers. ($1,000,000)
- Grant Administration ($250,000)
Responsible Development is more than achieving LEED certification. Responsible Development also requires sensitivity to neighborhood issues and a willingness to address those issues. It remains unknown whether the grant will result in a substantive regulatory framework that encourages equitable transit oriented development. Such development will require the cooperation of local governments, neighborhoods, and developers. However, the fact that eighteen project partners cooperated to secure this grant is one indicator that we should expect some substantive outcomes from this conversation.
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1 See, Puget Sound Regional Council’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Proposal, 4-5, available here
2 Project partners include: A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH), the City of Bellevue, the Cascade Land Conservancy, the City of Everett, King County, King County Housing Authority, North Seattle Community College, Public Health – Seattle & King County, Puget Sound Regional Council, City of Redmond, City of Seattle, Seattle Housing Authority, City of Tacoma, Tacoma – Pierce County Heath Department, the University of Washington’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies, and the Urban Land Institute – Seattle District Council
3 The grant does not provide funding that capitalizes the land bank.
