The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has issued new guidance the agency indicated would increase transit agency flexibility to enhance joint development projects.
“We are committed to supporting transit agencies that pursue joint development projects to capture the economic value of transit,” FTA Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams said. “Innovative partnerships and funding sources can help deliver projects more quickly, and this is especially important as communities recover from the COVID-19 public health emergency.”
The new guidelines update previous guidance and become effective immediately. While increasing flexibility for transit agencies receiving FTA funding to pursue joint development projects, the action also reduces FTA involvement in joint development agreements negotiated between project sponsors and their partners, streamlines the agency’s project eligibility review process, and clarifies prior guidelines.
Construction of commercial, residential or mixed-use projects near transit or on transit system-owned land is included in the joint project development scope, which indicated public and private investments are coordinated between transit agencies and developers to build the project, yielding a revenue stream for the developer and the transit agency.
Authorities said the guidance revisions support the DOT’s commitment to follow the executive order accelerating the nation’s COVID-19 economic recovery effort by expediting infrastructure investments and other activities.