Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning

Date Posted:

Date Closed:

Opportunity ID: FTA-2016-005-TPE

Opportunity Announcement Text: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-04-14/html/2016-08538.htm

Opportunity Announcement PDF: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-04-14/pdf/2016-08538.pdf

Details:

4/14/2016. Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): Notice of Funding Opportunity for PILOT PROGRAM FOR TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (TOD) PLANNING. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the availability of $20.49 million in Pilot Program for TOD Planning funding to support comprehensive planning associated with new fixed guideway and core capacity improvement projects that are seeking or have recently received funding through FTA’s Fixed Guideway Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program. Additional appropriations may result in additional funding for proposals submitted under this notice. FTA may award amounts ranging from $250,000 to $2,000,000. Synopses and full announcement are posted on Grants.gov site as opportunity FTA-2016-005-TPE. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Grants.gov website by midnight Eastern Time on June 13, 2016.

Summary: The Pilot Program for TOD Planning helps support FTA’s mission of improving public transportation for America’s communities by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning with a New Starts, Core Capacity or fixed-guideway Small Starts project that is seeking or has recently received funding through the CIG Program. MAP-21 established, and the FAST Act continues to require, that any comprehensive planning funded through the pilot program must examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations. The statute also requires that the planning work be associated with a new fixed guideway or core capacity transit project as defined under the CIG Program.

Through this program, FTA intends to fund planning work that would likely not occur without Federal support. FTA is seeking comprehensive planning projects covering an entire transit capital project corridor, rather than proposals that involve planning for individual station areas or only a small section of the corridor. FTA is prioritizing applications in corridors with significant challenges related to TOD planning, low levels of existing development, lack of connectivity to essential services, or where the cost of the planning work to overcome the challenges exceeds what might be readily available locally. FTA is also prioritizing projects that include strategies to address the gentrification and displacement that can sometimes occur when transit capital projects are implemented. To ensure that planning work reflects the needs and aspirations of the local community and results in concrete, specific deliverables and outcomes, FTA is requiring that transit project sponsors partner with entities with land use planning authority in the transit project corridor.

Eligible Applicants: Any comprehensive planning work proposed for funding under this program must be associated with a transit capital project that meets the definition of a New Starts, Core Capacity or fixed-guideway Small Starts project under the CIG Program (e.g., Section 5309(a) of title 49, United States Code), and meets one of the following conditions:

Is expected to enter New Starts, Small Starts or Core Capacity Project Development in the future; Is in the Project Development or Engineering phase of the New Starts or Core Capacity process, or in the Project Development phase of the Small Starts process, by the date the application to the Pilot Program for TOD Planning is submitted; or Received a construction grant or grant agreement (i.e., FFGA or SSGA) through the CIG Program since July 2012, which is when the Pilot Program was enacted in MAP-21.

Applicants and eventual grant recipients under this program must be FTA grantees as of the publication date of the NOFO. A proposer must either be the project sponsor of an eligible transit capital project as defined above or an entity with land use planning authority in an eligible transit capital project corridor. Evidence of a partnership between these two types of entity will be required unless the applicant has both responsibilities. Please refer to the NOFO for further information.

Only one application per transit capital project corridor may be submitted to FTA. Multiple applications submitted for a single transit capital project corridor indicate to FTA that partnerships are not in place and FTA will reject all of the applications.

Any proposed transit project that was awarded Pilot Program for TOD Planning funding in a prior year is not eligible for funding through this solicitation.

Link and Instructions for attaching the supplemental form to the SF-424: All applicants must complete the supplemental form (PDF) specific to the Pilot Program for TOD Planning and attach it to their submission in Grants.gov. Applicants should refer to section D of the NOFO for further information about required application contents.

Webinar: FTA held a webinar on this funding opportunity on April 28. The webinar provided an overview of the program, described eligible applicants and projects, and provided an opportunity for attendees to obtain answers to other questions. You can view a recording of the webinar or the presentation slides.

Dates: An applicant must submit a proposal electronically by midnight Eastern Time on June 13, 2016. Any agency intending to apply should initiate the process of registering on the Grants.gov site immediately to ensure completion of registration before the submission deadline.

For Further Information Contact: For information on this NOFO for PILOT PROGRAM FOR TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (TOD) PLANNING, contact Benjamin Owen, Office of Planning and Environment, at Benjamin.Owen@dot.gov or 202-366-5602