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Transit Oriented Development

Target: By 2023, increase the number of destinations such as jobs, residences, and other resources or amenities within a 1/4 mile or five minute safe and accessible walk by 30 percent at 20 stations from a 2018 baseline.

How are we doing? Check out the OneSTL Performance Indicators here.

Background: Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is development within a 1/4 mile or a five minute walk from a MetroLink or MetroBus Transfer station that supports transit ridership through design and orientation that focuses on the transit, makes transit accessible by a diversity of mode choices and supports a mix of uses for the rider. Traditional transportation metrics, like commute mode, travel time to work, and vehicle miles travelled, are already required to be measured for many government entities. In order to expand our regional metric tools and to encourage strategic investment that would help increase transportation use, the focus group that formed to discuss goals for the Transportation sector after the 2017 Regional Sustainability Summit indicated that they would like to advance Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the region.  

Structure: The TOD Working Group is a committee convening through Citizens For Modern Transit (CMT) and is led by Kim Cella. The group consists of representatives from Metro, East-West Gateway, St. Louis City, and private developers. 

Activities: Looking ahead, the Working Group will:

  • Create a more robust indicator for measuring the quality of TOD at light rail and bus station areas.
  • Develop a process for assessing Metrolink and Metrobus stations.
  • Collect data on the destinations and walkability that currently exists.
  • Identify hurdles and opportunities for strategizing more TOD in the region, including development at MetroLink stations as well as site improvements at bus stops. (Check out CMT's "How-To" booklet on Transit Stop Transformation projects, which turn transit stops into welcoming community centers.)

What you can do:

  • Check out resources in the OneSTL Toolkit, such as the Transit Oriented Development and Reducing Parking Minimums tools.
  • Reach out to your local elected officials and let them know that pedestrian infrastructure like complete sidewalks and pedestrian scale lighting are important to you and an essential component of any sustainable, equitable, and livable city.
  • Adopt-A-Stop as a demonstration of your commitment to safe, accessible transit.
  • Ask your local elected officials to ride the bus or MetroLink at least a couple of times per year so that they can see the needs and opportunities around existing transit routes and amenities.
  • Volunteer to help conduct a sidewalk audit of your neighborhood or local community. 

The following organizations Support* or Commit** to assisting with this Target.

Curium*
Bi-State Development**
MBS Urban Initiaves CDE, LLC*
Global Products, Inc**
Renew Missouri*
Sitton Energy Solutions*
Washington University in St. Louis*
University City, MO*
Linda Goldstein Consulting*
The Nature Conservancy in Missouri*
Heartlands Conservancy*
Missouri Coalition for the Environment*
Citizens for Modern Transit**
US Green Building Council - Missouri Gateway Chapter*
International Society of Sustainability Professionals StL Chapter*
Green Dining Alliance / St. Louis Earth Day*
Nine Network of Public Media**

 

Transit Oriented Development Plans and Projects

OneSTL Transit Oriented Development Resources and Reports

OneSTL has a library of TOD resources, reports, and plans.

TOD Investment Database and Story Map

Bi-State Development keeps an updated database on all investment within a half mile of MetroLink stations, tracking back to 2011. Information in the database includes station ridership, and parking utilization, as well as project information, including when available: project description, new residential units, rehabilitated square feet, commercial square feet, new jobs created, investment amount, and delivery date. This information has also been translated into a publicly available story map which displays simpler, easy to read descriptions of each recent TOD project.

CMT MetroLink Station profiles

CMT created a database of station profiles for all MetroLink Stations in 2011. The profiles include a qualitative description of the area, regional accessibility by transit, MetroLink ridership, demographics housing and employment, neighborhood context, zoning, land use policies and community plans, and potential development opportunities and issues.

Updated “mini” profiles

Bi-State Development created updated “mini” profiles of all the MetroLink stations in 2016. These profiles include a sentence description of TOD at the station and its opportunities, recent TOD projects and nearby anchor institutions, as well as regional connectivity via transit and MetroLink ridership. (On BSD drive)

Opportunities for Development Around Light Rail

In 2014, CMT produced a report identifying opportunities for development around MetroLink Stations. This booklet provides an overview of demographics and land available within a half-mile radius of each of the 37 stations on the current light rail system, including ridership, population breakdown, daily employment and more.

10 Strategies for Attracting Development Near Transit in a Slow Growth Market

In 2012, CMT produced guidance on attracting development near transit through funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Urban Land Institute.

Development Incentives Research

In 2016, East West Gateway assembled resources answering the following questions: How much has the region “spent” on development incentives? What effect has the use of incentives had on local governments’ ability to finance essential public services? Has there been a distributional effect with regard to race and income? These resources include data files of all the incentives in the region, most in excel format.

St. Louis TOD overlay Code and Plans Clearinghouse

CMT has assembled TOD plans, resources, and codes in place.

Transit Oriented Development (As an Overlay District) Template for the St. Louis Area

In 2007, CMT created a template for St. Louis area municipalities considering adopting a TOD overlay district.

Currently underway…

Northside-Southside Alignment Study

The Northside-Southside Alignment Study seeks to review, affirm, and revise the findings associated with the adopted Locally Preferred Alternative from 2008, and consider a new alignment that would serve the future National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Additionally, the study will explore the project’s potential scores if applying for federal funding, including development opportunity around the stations. The study will likely conclude in late 2018.

Northside – Southside TOD Planning Study

In 2017-2018, Bi-State Development in partnership with SDLC and the City of St. Louis will produce a TOD planning study for the potential future Northside Southside MetroLink line. The work will focus on corridor-wide issues of access, governance and management, and implementation strategies.

Infrastructural Opportunism: Mobility for all by all

Washington University received a Mellon Grant under the Urban Humanities Initaitive for the St. Louis Divided Cities grant program. Under this grant, a core project team including CMT, Bi-State Development/Metro Transit, and others, aims to experiment with an arts and design-based approach to building community-centered ownership and broad vision around the potential future Northside Southside MetroLink line. The projects will likely occur during the summer of 2018.