DOT, HUD team up on joint funding for coordinated housing and transportation planning

For the first time ever, DOT and HUD will team up to foster planning for more livable, sustainable communities. In this groundbreaking collaboration, we will coordinate up to $75 million in funding--$35 million from DOT, $40 million from HUD--for planning activities leading to projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development.

This is more exciting than it sounds.

 

This joint Notice of Funding Availability means projects that apply for funding will be evaluated by a dual-agency process. Rather than have applicants proceed through two separate grant application procedures that might be on different timelines with different requirements, we're streamlining to create one point of entry.

We're breaking down needless barriers between complementary federal programs. And, if you ever talk to planners, they will tell you these barriers between agencies can be a considerable obstacle to local innovation.

So we will jointly evaluate projects with component parts that fall under both DOT and HUD. Grants for transportation planning portions of successful projects will be funded through DOT's TIGER II discretionary program. And grants for housing planning will be funded through HUD's Sustainable Community Challenge program.

But projects will be considered holistically to better align transportation, housing, economic development, and land use planning.

Artist's rendering of livability planning in Cheyenne, Wyoming

It's pretty clear that housing and transportation decisions affect each other, and the best projects build that relationship into their planning. So it only makes sense to build the housing-transportation relationship into how we evaluate those projects for funding awards.

We think this approach will result in better projects and more effective use of federal resources. It's a win for the communities where these projects are located, and it's a win for the nation.

When we announced the Obama Administration's inter-agency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, this is just the sort of coordinated activity we had in mind. And I am thrilled that DOT is part of it.

Comments

[Andy]

Start out by creating new building materials that look like stone and are fire proof and rot proof composed of materials that might otherwise be in landfills. Create communities that aren't torn down after 50 years and replaced but can be taken apart and reused to create new structures (because the cost of building and recycling is always increasing).

[Andy Alden]

This is much more important than it sounds! We've lacked this type of cooperative planning between housing and transportation for so long in the U.S. This alone could have a major impact on the long term sustainability of the way of life to which we've become accustomed.

I only hope that the two entirely different federal programs can play nice together and pull this off where others never tried, or tried and failed.

[Bruno]

Way to go Ray! I'm guessing most citizens don't realize it, but you're a hero to the next generation. My kids will have to thank you some day!

[Francis Knize]

TO: Shelley.R.Poticha@hud.gov

Office of HUD Sustainable Housing and Community Development

RE: Strategic Planning and Management to ensure development of regional HUD Urban Circulators through a unified policy for interagency grants

Dear Ms. Poticha,

In order for your plan to work HUD in Washington must coordinate regional HUD offices to engage Local MPO's and Private Consortiums. TIGER GRANT partnership submissions can do much to bring about a plan to connect HUD Communities with downtown areas and High-Speed Rail. We have designed a HUD certifiable Urban Circulator that has no carbon emissions. The TIGER Grant being out now compelled us to contact regional HUD offices. However, we've learned the local offices need direction from above.

Local HUD agents need the freedom to meet with Industry and Local Metro-planners without fear of a conflict of interest. How does the EPA do it? Please visit their site link to the Smartway Program and how they resolve the issue, while in fact, creating a certification process that private Industry can be listed. Their simple disclkaimer solves the legal iossues.

http://www.epa.gov/smartway/transport/index.htm

Francis Knize
Sky Train Corp Grants Officer
TIGER Partnership with five city planners
203 544 9603

[Michael E. Bailey]

This is a great beginning to what should become a ;permanent part of the grant process--bring down the barriers between agencies and jointly evaluate projects for grant funding when they will impact both housing and transportation. There needs to be more of this kind of thing. Housing, economic development and transportation go together and projects that can integrate them will give a major boost to struggling local economies. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Mouhamad A.Naboulsi]

I just love the way this administration is working. It's no longer every area of influence to itself.

This is a cool idea. We will finally have streets that are welcoming to humans as they are to cars.

In Michigan, Governor Granholm started an initiative called "Cool Cities". We now have many areas that have pedestrian freindly side walks with decent parking spaces.

Engineering and planning is the way to go. This will help us make the cities liveables and reduce suburban flights and reduce Oil consumption and Pollution.

[Wade White]

Hopefully this starts the "re-discovery" of the links between transport and land use and live-ability that more or less died around the early 1980's. It seems that all federal transport programs should take live-ability impacts into account in a major way as part of the project funding and prioritization criteria- not just this program.