The U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the availability of $19.2 million in funding to support comprehensive planning that improves access to public transit.

The competitive grant funds are provided through FTA’s Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning. A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) appears in today’s Federal Register.

The Pilot Program for TOD Planning funds comprehensive planning to encourage ridership, transit access, and economic and mixed-use development near public transportation projects.

In order to apply for program funding, an applicant must be an FTA grantee — either a project sponsor of an eligible transit project or an entity with land use planning authority in the project corridor. To ensure that planning work meets the needs of the local community, transit project sponsors and land use planning authorities must partner to conduct the planning work. The application period will close on November 18, 2019.

Last year, FTA awarded $16.6 million in grants to 20 organizations for such planning efforts as the development of zoning changes to encourage development along a proposed bus rapid transit line in Indianapolis and an analysis of multi-modal access to stations along a proposed light rail line in Maryland.

FTA’s TOD Pilot Program was established under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and amended by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The program is authorized through Fiscal Year 2020.