Transit-oriented development
Planning and conservation › Land and development › Transit-oriented development
Discover how Metro is helping spark vibrant downtowns and main streets through public/private partnerships, investments and incentives in key development projects located near transit.
The region's long-range plan, the 2040 Growth Concept, calls for the region to use existing urban land more efficiently to protect farms, forests and natural areas located on the urban fringe. Specifically, the plan calls for substantial amounts of the region's growth to occur in medium- to high-density mixed-use, walkable urban centers and corridors linked by high quality transit service. While this approach appeals to many citizens, public officials, planners and innovative developers, the creation of mixed-use, higher density districts has not been widely embraced by the development community, largely due to economic infeasibility. Metro's Transit-Oriented Development Program aims to provide built examples of transit-oriented development projects and to demonstrate the potential of public-private partnerships for making great communities.
Results
Metro's Transit-Oriented Development Program has contributed to many of the regions'
successful transit-oriented developments and has acquired key
opportunity sites at transit stations. Through active engagement in the
design and construction of real projects, the program has helped
identify and remove obstacles to the creation of transit villages, main
streets and mixed-used urban centers envisioned by the 2040 Growth
Concept.
Innovations
In 1998, Metro's Transit-Oriented Development Program was the first in the nation to receive authorization to use federal transportation funding to specifically acquire land for redevelopment adjacent to a light rail station. This authorization set the stage for Department of Transportation acceptance of the close relationship between development patterns and travel behavior. Other innovations include:
- resale of land with federal interest at a reduced cost to acknowledge that building at densities ahead of the market negatively affects economic feasibility of development
- development of an induced transit ridership model to compare transit impacts of alternative development programs
- the creation of the transit oriented development easement.
The Transit-Oriented Development Program provides financial incentives and uses public/private partnerships to enhance the economic feasibility of higher density mixed-use projects served by transit. The program uses site control and requests for proposals and qualifications to engage a private development partner or purchases a transit-oriented development easement on projects eligible for program funding. The program continues to build capacity of the private sector to develop projects that meet regional planning objectives while demonstrating to the public that the future they envisioned is indeed possible, and is happening.
The "Philms" series with Phil Whitmore
Learn about Metro's award winning Transit-Oriented Development and Centers Implementation Program in a series of video conversations with Phil Whitmore, the founder of the Transit-Oriented Development Program...More
Featured projects
Find information about these transit-oriented development projects, including informational and slide show videos.
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East Burnside Street development that will contain 27,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and creative office space
Burnside Rocket
four-story building that includes 16,500 square feet of commercial and office space with outdoor terraces on each level
Center Commons
mixed-income, transit-oriented development consisting of four apartment buildings and 26 townhouses
Central Point
four-story, mixed-use project that features 3,000 square feet of class A ground-floor retail space and 22 market-rate apartments in Gresham
The Crossings
mixed-use project located in the heart of Gresham’s Civic Neighborhood
The Merrick
six-story, mixed-use, transit-oriented development in Portland with 185 rental apartments and 15,000 square feet of commercial space
Nexus
mixed-use project consisting of 422 units of housing, 7100 square feet of ground floor retail and a 4500 square foot clubhouse, including a conference center, fitness center, theater and lounge
North Flint
4,950 square feet development, the smallest project funded through Metro’s Transit-Oriented Development Program
North Main Village
mixed-use project that features 8,000 square feet of class A retail space and 97 housing units in Milwaukie
Pacific University Hillsboro campus
Pacific University’s College of Health Professions and College of Optometry campus in Hillsboro
Russellville Commons
three-phase, 576 unit transit-oriented development in the Gateway Regional Center
Villa Capri
20-unit, low- and moderate-income housing project located in suburban Hillsboro
The Watershed
mixed-use project that includes 50 units of affordable senior housing in Portland
files and related materials
To view PDF files, download free Adobe Reader. To translate PDF files into text to assist visually-impaired users, visit Access.Adobe.com.
Files that are downloadable from this page
- Transit-Oriented Development Program brochure 280K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published May 1, 2009
- Parking and density presentation 3.3M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published January 16, 2008
- Transit-oriented development program process and examples presentation 9.2M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published January 16, 2008
- Urban Living Infrastructure executive summary 2.3M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published June 1, 2007
- Transit-oriented development and centers 2007 annual report 3.5M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published March 18, 2008