Transit-Oriented Development

TOD’s can provide many benefits but are complex projects that address multiple challenges simultaneously. Successful TOD considers market demand and community needs to expand housing options and affordability, improve access to jobs and services and advance opportunities for economic development. Through joint development, transit owners and communities can offset the capital costs of infrastructure and secure long-term revenues to offset operating costs. TOD can also help cities achieve sustainability goals and smart city initiatives by linking transportation and land use.

Putting Our Experience to Work for You

With the right planning and forethought, TOD and TOC can be equitable, sustainable and desirable. WSP focuses on developing implementable projects that create sustainable communities. We understand the importance of establishing a vison and creating a "sense of place". By fully incorporating public involvement and stakeholder engagement process, we help improve mobility by creating communities around transit where people want to work and live.

WSP provides the range of interrelated land use and transportation planning, urban design, landscape, engineering, real estate, market and funding services needed for TOD to be successful. We address the multiple challenges of TOD and community building as part of an integrated approach to catalyze community revitalization and equitable development. Our process allows us to test and evaluate ideas in the early stages of planning and is just one of the strategies we use to create design ideas that are implementable.

WSP’s Expertise in Transit-Oriented Development

WSP has brought its expertise to a full range of TOD projects across the U.S. and around the world. We focus on economically viable solutions and equitable outcomes. These TOD projects include development feasibility, funding and financing, station area and development plans, corridor planning, landscape architecture, civil, structural and MEP engineering. We have led the planning and design of some of the most complex transit station and rail yard overbuild projects. We utilize leading edge Virtual Reality and advanced graphics to visualize TOD and engage the public.

One of the best examples of our integrated approach to TOD is the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas (KBHCCD) Master Plan and Area Plan in Dallas, TX. This master plan modernizes the KBHCCD and leverages future transportation plans to set the stage for 30-acres of mixed-use TOD to create an entertainment destination at the Convention Center’s front door. The plan is implementation-focused and considers funding, governance models and revenue generation and provides benefits at the neighborhood, city and regional scale.

In Raleigh, NC we worked closely with the city and residents to create a citywide Equitable TOD (ETOD) Guidebook. The guidebook provides a toolkit of strategies to leverage transit investments for sustainable growth. The ETOD guidebook is unique in that it provides both a policy foundation and a set of design principles to guide subsequent planning efforts. The recommendations in the guidebook are being implemented as the city builds out its Bus Rapid Transit network.

WSP has prepared multiple TOD corridor studies for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) in Florida. The Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) TOD Study lays out a vison for TOD around on-demand, interconnected autonomous vehicles as part of a retrofitted and expanded existing elevated monorail guideway. WSP engaged the private sector and identified infrastructure needs to enable mixed-use development near transit stations that considers the relationship between new mobility and transit-centric development. WSP also completed a TOD corridor study for the planned Green Line Commuter rail project to St. Augustine.

At Bond Street Station in London, two booking halls in the underground station have been designed to accommodate valuable development above ground in one of the world’s most expensive real estate areas. The revenue from this opportunity has provided a significant contribution to fund new transportation.

Other examples are found in Australia, with the Sydney Metro North West and Edmondson Park where WSP is supporting a new town center with 1,500 homes and 325,000 SF of retail space.

Our experts around the world have led a variety of projects, with diverse requirements, laying the groundwork for WSP to provide unique and innovative solutions and create a more resilient economy, while leveraging infrastructure investments to do more.