— The Raleigh City Council approved a rezoning request Tuesday that will allow GoTriangle to build a tower of up to 40 stories next to Raleigh Union Station.

GoTriangle won a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation last December to help build the facility, known as RUS Bus, which will connect to Union Station on West Street. The transit agency is already in the process of choosing a developer for the project. The grant requires that construction begin by 2020.

"This is another important step in working with our city partners on a project that will provide critical transit connections in this rapidly growing area. We want to ensure our community has even greater access to jobs, education and health care," GoTriangle Interim President and Chief Executive Shelley Blake Curran said in a statement.

A bus transfer facility will be the foundation for the development, officials said.

Union Station, which opened in July 2018, is served by 10 trains a day. Once the RUS Bus project is complete, officials said, people will be able to take an Amtrak or a commuter train to Raleigh and then switch to a bus to get to their final destinations.

A 37-mile commuter rail project is included in the Wake Transit Plan, and local voters agreed in 2016 to raise the sales tax rate by a half-cent to help pay for the plan.

In addition to the bus transfer station, the RUS Bus project will include market-rate and affordable housing, office and retail space and possibly a hotel, officials said.

The affordable housing would be 20 units or 10 percent of the total number of residential units in the tower, whichever is greater, and would target households earning 80 percent of the area’s median income. The units would remain at below-market rates for at least 15 years.

"Whenever we can put transit connections together with housing and jobs, the community wins," Blake Curran said. "It’s going to be exciting to see all of the ways RUS Bus contributes to improving the quality of life we enjoy in the Triangle."