Last week, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) released the Transit Oriented Development Strategic Plan created for the Metro TOD program in Portland, Ore. In conjunction with the release, CTOD published a Web page providing guidance on how the plan contents can be nationally applied.

CTOD developed the Strategic Plan in collaboration with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. and the Metro TOD program staff. The plan will ensure that the program maximizes the region’s TOD opportunities and effectively leverages additional resources to advance TOD in station areas and frequent-bus corridors.

Metro is the only Metropolitan Planning Organization in the country with a TOD Program that invests specifically in the bricks and mortar of development projects with the intention of pushing the market to build more sustainably. While the Strategic Plan looks at the range of investments needed to promote TOD, it focuses on the program’s activities.

The plan evaluates existing conditions around Portland, classifies station areas and corridors based on their readiness to support TOD, offers guidelines for phasing of TOD program work and discusses future activities and funding strategies.

“This TOD Strategic Plan can be a model for other regions in the country seeking to leverage investments in transit to benefit larger community and economic development strategies,” said Sam Zimbabwe, director of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. “With more and more communities building transit systems nationwide, this resource shows them that they don’t need to start from square one.”