The Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a new interagency collaboration between the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), awarded $2,953,372 for the Strategic Implementation of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in Denver. This funding will help implement the City’s plans to integrate affordable housing and commercial development with enhanced transportation choices made possible by RTD’s FasTracks Program expansion.
Specifically, the funding will:
- Help the City further leverage FasTracks to benefit citizens at all income levels.
- Allow us to create a Housing Development Assistance Fund to support affordable housing land banking and predevelopment activities for projects within a half mile of transit stations and high frequency bus corridors – primarily along the West Light Rail Corridor (due to open in 2013.)
- Allow us to enhance existing neighborhoods and enable the preservation or creation of open space near transit stations.
- Help us build on the eight TOD plans the City has already adopted and the three that are underway.
- Help increase the supply of affordable housing units near west side transit stations to 3,000 from 1,400.
- Enable the creation of 55 acres of infill development potential within the Federal Blvd. Station area and next to two major bus corridors.
Denver Planning Manager Peter Park accepted the grant on behalf of Denver Mayor John W. Hickenlooper at a press conference on October 20, 2010. Mr. Park extended thanks to the many partners who have joined Denver in this important initiative. They are:
- Denver Community Planning & Development
- Urban Land Conservancy
- Denver Housing Authority
- Enterprise Community Loan Fund
- RTD
- Reconnecting America
- Denver Foundation
- Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA)
- Denver Public Works
- Denver Environmental Health
- Denver Office of Economic Development
- Denver Parks & Recreation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a grant of $175,000 to help the Denver community further improve the South Platte River corridor.
This vital project will:
- Build upon the successes that Denver has had along the Platte River, such as Confluence Park and the Central Platte Valley development, by enabling the City to conduct comprehensive planning for the entire river corridor. This includes developing a systematic corridor-wide strategy for assessment, clean-up and re-use of property within the South Platte River Brownfields Impacted Area.
- Engage the public in the process of creating recommendations for properties along the river and greenway, including catalytic Brownfield sites that have the potential to create jobs and improve quality of life for adjacent neighborhoods.
- Expand upon Denver’s success in revitalizing Brownfield sites, such as the TAXI redevelopment project along the South Platte in the River North neighborhood and the Stapleton Airport redevelopment.
Partners on this important project are:
- Greenway Foundation
- Denver Community Planning & Development
- Denver Office of Economic Development
- Denver Environmental Health
- Denver Department of Finance
- Denver Parks & Recreation
- Denver Public Works
These important federal grant awards address needs identified in previous Denver planning efforts, including:
Blueprint Denver – coordinates land-use and transportation planning and steers growth and innovation to Areas of Change, including both the West Corridor and much of the land adjacent to the Platte River.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Plans – increase housing choices and jobs within walking distance of light rail stations; require creative ways of financing affordable housing through public-private partnerships; improve access to light rail stations from existing neighborhoods.
River South and River North Master Plans – seek to improve environmental and recreational quality of the Platte River; clean-up Brownfields along the river; create guidelines for development along the Platte River so that new development complements the river, activates the riverfront, and protect the environmental integrity of the river.