FIRST COAST COMMUTER RAIL TOD STUDY | TOD IMPLEMENTATION
FIRST COAST COMMUTER RAIL TOD STUDY | TOD IMPLEMENTATION
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LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS AND POLICY ALIGNMENT Ongoing and regular interagency coordination will be necessary to successfully develop and implement the FCCR and TOD as envisioned by JTA. A coordinated effort between JTA and the cities, counties, institutional and private sector partners, as well as key community-based organizations and civic groups, will be instrumental in planning for and implementing TOD across the line that reflects the goals of the areas served. Long-term partnerships and policy alignment sets the stage for TOD implementation, making sure that all stakeholders are involved and in regular communication around steps like land use planning and zoning, securing funding sources, and prioritizing funding uses. Working groups formed by the JTA, with other City, private, and community partners should stand up a sustainable operating and management structure with equitable TOD as a guiding goal for group actions. Groups can take a number of different forms. Florida Statute 163.01, otherwise known as the Florida Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969, permits local governmental units to make the most efficient use of their powers by enabling them to cooperate with other localities. In 2023, Jacksonville currently has over 140 types of interlocal agreements, including an agreement for public school facility planning to coordinate land use policy across the County. The agreement includes terms around sharing information, meetings, and decision- making policies between the Cities involved. Working groups can involve many types of entities. For example, the District Council system used in Saint Paul, MN allows inter-jurisdictional collaboration through autonomous non-profit agencies to help residents to get involved in city planning. While implementing the METRO Green Line in Minneapolis and St. Paul, district councils jointly formed the District Councils Collaborative to ensure concerns from various communities and neighborhoods were addressed in planning efforts, and that the benefits of TOD were equitably distributed across the councils’ constituents.
REGIONAL VISIONING AND STRATEGY
Preferred Development Structure: For sites where land is held publicly, a number of alternative development structures and strategies can be explored, each generating trade-offs in terms of public and private risk/control, as well as total development costs, with impacts on development outcomes. For example, the public sector may choose to enter a fee sale to a private developer to minimize public risk, or to enter into a ground lease or joint venture in order to retain greater control over site development while providing access to below market public financing rates for improvements (Figure 6-1). Where the public sector and its partners control multiple parcels within a development site, decisions also will need to be made about the preferred scope of future development solicitations, such as whether a developer is sought for earlier phases, for all phases (adding development value by offsetting riskier initial stages of site development in a nascent market with potential upside from future phases in a more established market, but limiting longer term public control over development progress and competitiveness), or for a just an earlier phase but with a Right of First Offer or Right of First Refusal for subsequent phases (partially enhancing developer value while retaining greater public control).
Maximizing Development Value and Minimizing Development Risk: The strongest development
Once an organizational structure is established, partners must work together over all phases of implementation. This means to confirm the vision for the TOD across the line, prioritize development sites and station areas, identify the land use/zoning regulations needed to support TOD, develop a funding and financing strategy to support new development and public infrastructure, prepare sites for being offered up to developers, and to govern the development structure. Examples of the function of these partnerships at different implementation phases are described below: Land Use Regulations: Since JTA does not have land use authority, it will have to work with the agencies with zoning and land use control to get TOD supportive zoning in place. Coordinating on a land use policy and zoning across the transit corridor can support TOD goals like increasing ridership, providing housing, and promoting mixed-use development by adjusting densities and permitted land uses. Even though each station area along the corridor has unique context and characteristics, having a regional approach to what is built around the stations provides consistency across the system, which can support system-wide strategies like value capture, described further in section 5.2. Effective coordination could involve providing both technical and financial support to cities to advance TOD supportive planning. LA Metro through its Transit Oriented Communities Implementation Plan released in 2020 establishes a Technical Assistance Program (TAP) and a Grant Writing Program that provides resources like organized forums and grant writers to municipalities to encourage adapting land use regulations and zoning to support TOC policy goals. LA Metro also prepared Baseline Assessments, starting along specific transit corridors, to serve as resources of information for municipalities and community members, to highlight opportunities to leverage the transit infrastructure investments for equitable TOCs and what tools and resources municipalities can best deploy to respond to their specific conditions and best leverage the transit investment for community benefits and to address the potential challenges 1 . Site Assemblage: Individual parcels around the station areas are owned by multiple parties: including JTA, the City, and/or private landowners. As market interest is better understood, decisions will need to be made surrounding the level of public land assemblage desired prior to solicitation of developers for publicly owned parcels; the appropriate structure for such assemblage (e.g., public acquisition or public/private partnerships); and the terms of agreement for any assemblages pursued.
proposals and partners will best be secured if value creating amenities are already clearly advancing or in place prior to issuance of developer solicitations (where applicable), and if steps have been taken to mitigate development risk. Transit improvements and proposed infrastructure enhancements to the public realm all add value for new development; identification of funding and a clear implementation plan, timeline, responsibilities (including public versus private) and support for these capital improvements prior to developer solicitations will inspire confidence and enthusiasm around the development opportunity. Preliminary commitments to public tenancy of commercial space will further strengthen value and marketability. In addition, development risk can be reduced by, for example, completing environmental assessments in advance; preparing – and ideally executing – a mitigation plan for identified contaminants; advancing entitlements; identifying and completing preliminary agreements around a parking strategy that minimizes required future parking construction; and, where feasible, seeking preliminary support for vertical development subsidies.
LAND DISPOSITION
GROUND LEASE
MASTER DEVELOPER
JOINT VENTURE
Public sector conveys land to private entity for vertical development.
Public sector acts as a developer/property owner to support development goals
Public sector is anchor tenant of a private development
Public sector acquires equity stake in development
Lesser/Lower
Greater/Higher
Public Sector Risk and Return
¹ LA Metro. (2020). TOC Implementation Plan. https://www. metro.net/about/transit-oriented-communities/
Figure 6-1: DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES AND PUBLIC SECTOR RISK & RETURN
FCCR TOD
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