Housing + Transit

WHAT DO TRANSIT AGENCIES NEED, WHAT CAN THEY DO, FOR EQUITABLE TOD?

By Linda Wheaton, HCD

NPH’s June Brown Bag Workshop, presented by Linda Wheaton from HCD, Heather Hood of Enterprise, Abby Thorne-Lyman of BART, and Nathan Landau of AC Transit highlighted that ridership and revenue are top transit agency priorities. Affordable housing is a studied means to increase ridership.

Examples of stakeholder-identified needs prioritize the customer experience with service integration, bus rapid transit, pedestrian & bicycle access improvements, transit-oriented development (TOD) and passenger information systems.

Panelists noted the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program includes provisions in both the land use and economic development scoring criteria related to maintaining or increasing the share of affordable housing in the transit corridor.

SFMTA’s Policy Framework includes optimizing land utilization and using innovative approaches to deliver public benefits. BART considers station area profiles including adjacent property and their Draft Strategic Plan Update includes, among other items, station modernization, TOD, station access, place-making and community-based policing strategies. AC Transit’s discounted EasyPass program can support lower parking requirements in housing developments.

One of NPH’s policy priorities, public land for public good, and the affordable housing benefits of AB 2135 (Ting, 2014), are applicable to transit agency owned surplus lands (see Public Counsel legal analysis). NPH will continue to work with transit agencies and local jurisdictions on policies implementing this law. Contact Pilar@nonprofithousing.org for more info & to get involved!

Above: West Oakland BART Station Area Profile