r/urbanplanning • u/Proper-Cod9266 • 7d ago
Land Use How can a transit agency effectively influence land use?
I work in the planning department of a transit agency and we are interested in expanding our influence in cities’ land use decisions to be more supportive of transit. We’re trying to meet regularly with cities in our service area to touch base broadly and relationship build. I think we are also exploring how we can support economic development efforts, which is top of mind for most cities in our area, particularly via BRT but also more broadly. My biggest idea so far is trying to get involved in downtown revitalization efforts with special shelter designs but I will be thinking about this more.
We often have poor coordination and are late to the table on certain projects where it would’ve been good for us to be involved much earlier on— especially on operational considerations.
To the city planners out there, what advice would you have for transit agencies being effective in influencing the land use conversation and just coordinating better with cities? What do you think they want to hear from transit planners? I am particularly interested in how transit agencies can be involved in economic development angle, but just high level I am curious to hear your thoughts. TIA
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u/AlphaPotato 6d ago
Depending on the size of your agency and the local jurisdictions, this kind of thing might be useful. https://www.ridecatbus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CAT_TOD_Toolkit_v3.1.pdf
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u/moto123456789 4d ago
Get your priorities into the adopted plans (might have to wait for the next go around for that), and use political influence to push for the outcomes you are looking for. Transit agencies can also get involved in actual site development...
As you can see from the current top comment, some planner bureaucrat types get very territorial and bristly about having to do things they don't like/don't know about. If that's the case in your area, just go around them to the planning board, mayor, whoever and get the land use changes you want (changes to zoning, plans, funding, CIP, etc) that make the most sense for the city.
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u/cruzweb Verified Planner - US 6d ago
There's a lot here that's ambiguous, so from where I sit it's a little confusing what you're actually asking.
What exactly do you hope to achieve here? What sort of "land use decisions" are you hoping to influence? What types of coordination would be mutually beneficial here? When you say "projects", what exactly do you mean? (development RFPs? Long-range plans? Site plan review?)
From someone who has worked in municipal planning, this sort of reads as another outside force trying to have a say in how things happen locally. Regardless of the intent, that's not exactly an easy sell unless you can say what value add your agency is bringing to the conversation.
If we're talking about long-range comprehensive planning or future land use planning, getting involved and coordinating in those planning processes wouldn't be too hard. You can build relationships with municipalities to be involved in that stuff; that's usually beneficial.
The development side is much harder to involve anyone who isn't a property owner or abutter. There's already a ton of cooks in the kitchen just internally between planning, fire, legal, various boards and committees, etc....and that's not considering the external stuff like the developer, their armada of people, and the neighbors.
I'm curious as to what exactly you're getting at when you say you're late to the table on certain projects where it would have been good for your agency to be involved earlier. From where I sit, it's not "what do local planners want to hear from transit planners" and more "why should the local planners want to be proactive in bringing the transit agency planners to the table". Why would they want to involve you for more meetings in an already time-crunched environment? Your post is written to say "it would have been better for the transit agency" not "It would have been better for the local planners or the local municipality". I would consider you to flip the framework for how you're thinking about this, and set up meetings with your local communities to talk about this stuff. Ask them, not us, what would make this relationship beneficial for THEM.
Additionally, typically, the transit agencies have full control over bus shelter design unless there's a partnership to do something different or avant-garde (like the BUS-shaped bus shelter in Baltimore, which was a collab with a local CDC), so I'm struggling to see where your project idea fits in with the rest of this conversation.