The Community Streetcar Coalition is a partnership of cities, transit authorities and architectural and engineering firms that supports establishing a Small Starts Program within the Federal Transit Administration. The coalition invites you to attend its semiannual meeting to learn more about the coalition and to participate in a discussion about current issues facing streetcar projects and advocates.

Jeffrey Boothe, Partner / Chair, Holland and Knight / New Starts Working Group, Washington, DC

Rail~Volution’s second annual TOD Marketplace follows up on last year’s success, providing a three-hour forum in which developers, investors, transit agencies, and cities can meet, greet and talk about the art of the deal! Hear a panel of developers and investors talk about cutting edge trends and the impact of today’s housing market. Gain access to some of the best minds in the development business to talk about the importance of early consensus-building in communities and techniques to get innovative projects built. Learn about who’s investing in TOD and what funds are available for mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. After a stimulating panel discussion, meet at break-out tables to find out how developers and investors look at your prospects.

Moderator: Shelley Poticha, President and Chief Executive Officer, Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit Oriented Development, Oakland, California
Laurence Pelosi, Executive Director-Acquisitions, Morgan Stanley Real Estate, San Francisco, California
Lee Norris, Managing Director, Cherokee Investment Fund, Raleigh, North Carolina
Denton Kent, Senior Vice President, The Staubach Company, Washington, D.C.
Fred Harris, Senior Vice President of Development, AvalonBay Communities, New York, New York
Dennis Harder, Development Manager, Joseph Freed & Associates, LLC, Chicago, Illinois
Dennis Fleming , Managing Director, Revival Partners LLC, Denver, Colorado
Mark Farrar, Principal, Millennium Partners, San Francisco, California
John Carroll, Principal, Carroll Investments LLC, Portland, Oregon
Deborah Castles, Vice President, McGrath Properties Inc., Oakland, California
Mary Ludgin, Managing Director, Heitman LLC, Chicago, Illinois
Karen Case, Executive Vice President, LaSalle Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Katherine Perez, Vice President, Development, Forest City Development, Los Angeles, California

Learn how to create grass roots support and effective community involvement. This workshop offers a broad understanding of transit and its role in building communities, with a focus on the importance of community outreach and effective communications. Attendees will learn how to build long-term relationships with the community and elected officials to develop an effective message about transportation, TOD and community livability.

Moderator: Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President for Policy, Transportation & Community, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago, Illinois
Kathleen Osher, Executive Director, Transit Alliance, Denver, Colorado
Henry Kay, Director, Baltimore Transit Alliance, Baltimore, Maryland

Learn what cities around the world have done to shape their livable communities. This workshop will provide a range of tools related to comparative urban data, the politics of transit, community engagement, designing TODs, visionary strategic planning, and urban design at the street level to help support walking and cycling. Participants will examine a number of case studies involving successful cities from around the world to see what steps they have taken to create more livable communities.

Peter Newman, Director / Chair, ISTP / Western Australia Sustainability Roundtable, Perth, Australia
Dr. Mark Bachels, National Leader - Sustainable Community Development Manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Kawana Waters, Queensland, Australia

View Newman presentation (153 pages /12mb)
View Bachels presentation (54 pages /5.1mb)

Congress established the Small Starts program to provide an opportunity to advance major capital projects seeking less than $75 million in New Starts monies with a total capital cost of less than $250 million. The Small Starts is intended to provide a reduced project review process that will enable a broad range of cities seeking to build bus rapid transit, streetcar, commuter rail and light rail projects. The Federal Transit Administration has published Interim Guidance which outlines FTA expectations for project submissions and provides an update about a proposed rule to implement the Small Starts program that will be published in the first half of the 2007. This panel will provide an opportunity for participants to hear from the FTA, as well as project sponsors, how they are navigating the Interim Guidance.

Moderator: Jeff Boothe, Partner/Chair, Holland and Knight/New Starts Working Group, Washington, DC
Richard Brandman, Assistant Director of Planning, Metro, Portland, Oregon
Brigid Hynes-Cherin, Associate Administrator for Policy and Environment, Federal Transit Administration, Washington, DC
Tunde Balvanyos, BRT Coordinator, Pace Suburban Bus, Arlington, Heights, Ilinois

View Brandman presentation (38 pages /4mb)
View Hynes-Cherin presentation (17 pages /0.1mb)
View Balvanyos presentation (14 pages /0.2mb)

Learn how to successfully extend the walking environment beyond the station into lower income and auto-oriented communities. This session will focuses on ways to incorporate improved pedestrian access to transit stations into developments around the station so that everyone, including those with cars and/or low income, can benefit. Learn about what has been done to create environments that are useful to a range of people and needs. Specific topics will include street design standards, transit station parking policies and zoning code provisions that hinder improved access improvements for pedestrians.

Moderator: Paul Zykofsky, Director, Center for Livable Communities, Local Government Commission, Sacramento, California
Jim Charlier, President, Charlier Associates, Boulder, Colorado

View Zykofsky presentation (137 pages /11mb)
View Charlier presentation (153 pages /13.5mb)

Hear tips for advancing your transit agenda through STPP. Join in a discussion with participants from STPP’s recent workshops on SAFETEA-LU implementation to hear about the key challenges, knowledge gaps, and other key findings that can help advance a transit investment agenda. In addition, STPP will review the workshop report — and what those discussions revealed about practices to follow and to avoid.

Moderator: Anne Canby, President, Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, Washington, DC
Elaine Clegg, Co-Director, Idaho Smart Growth, Boise, Idaho
John Gideon, President, Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition, Columbus, Ohio
Geoff Hobin, Special Projects Manager, Transit Authority of the River City, Louisville, Kentucky

View Canby presentation (5 pages /0.1mb)

Join your colleagues for the Chicago premier of the documentary: “Sprawling from Grace: The Unintended Consequences of Suburban Sprawl.” The documentary illustrates the dangers of continuing the housing patterns of suburban communities and conveys how they adversely affect the environment, our quality of life, and the economy. The film emphasizes the importance of expanding public transportation and the advantages of transit oriented development. Among the sponsors are the American Institute of Architects, Reconnecting America, and American Public Transportation Association.

Learn how to communicate about transit’s role in building communities with the media — and ultimately, with the general public. This session considers the many ways that effective communications with the media can define and support a positive development agenda. Attendees will learn how to build and use effective messages about transportation and TOD, as well as how to handle critics and skeptics.

Moderator: Chris Robling, Principal, Jayne Thompson & Assoc., Chicago, Illinois
John Farry, Director of Community and Government Relations, Valley Metro Rail, Phoenix, Arizona
Adella Jones, Director of Communications, Metro, St. Louis, Missouri
Diane Palmer, Director of Communications, Regional Transportation Authority of Northeastern Illinois, Chicago, Illinois

This session addresses the challenges that suburban communities face in working to create a dense, diverse community around TOD. In this session, learn how shifting demographics and escalating housing costs have allowed many suburbs to embrace an “urban” housing product around transit stations. The workshop will focus on how the urban housing product fits into the suburban lifestyle and what role income and racial diversity plays in this type of project. The panel will approach this issue from both a public and market perspective and will discuss the realities of creating a diverse urban place in suburbia.

Moderator: Shohreh Dupuis, Transit Manager, City of Anaheim, California
Scott McFadden, Senior Managing Director, Trammell Crow Residential, Denver, Colorado
Paul Kearsley, General Manager- City Development, City of Whitehorse, Victoria, Australia
Dennis Marino, Assistant Director of Community Development Department, City of Evanston, Illinois

View Marino presentation (12 pages /0.7mb)

Learn about the latest examples of form-based codes intended to create pedestrian oriented streetscapes on bus routes, streetcar lines and rail transit stations. This session will present some of the most recent form-based codes, including those that address infill developments on existing bus transit streets, streetcars in downtowns, and development around rail transit stations. Examples will be used to help workshop participants problem solve small-lot redevelopment situations, including sustainable design principles and other issues into the code. Examples will include the new form based codes in Denver, Chicago and Dallas.

Moderator: Ronald Stewart, Principal, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, Portland, Oregon
Leslie Oberholtzer, Director of Planning, Farr Associates, Chicago, Illinois
Caleb Racicot, Principal, Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates, Atlanta, Georgia

View Oberholtzer presentation (81 pages /6.8mb)

Learn how other communities are successfully balancing issues related to urban TODs and equality. This workshop will focus on the successes and challenges of creating and maintaining dense urban development. It also will examine how public and private entities are learning to better leverage business, retail and housing development in dense urban areas.

Moderator: Bola Delano, Associate Executive Director, Chicago Area Transportation Study, Chicago, Illinois
LaShawn Hoffman, Director, Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association, Atlanta, Georgia
Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First, Washington, DC

View Delano presentation (11 pages /0.3mb)
View Hoffman presentation (20 pages /0.7mb)

This panel discussion will highlight ways to allay the fears of the community during the pre-construction and construction phases. This session will focus on innovative ways public involvement teams can be more accessible to the community during planning and construction phases. One of the newest trends for public involvement teams, creating “drop in” centers within communities, will be discussed. Special emphasis will be placed on strategies for assisting and promoting businesses during the construction phase.

Moderator: Moderator: Carla Kahn, Community Outreach Coordinator, Valley Metro Rail, Phoenix, Arizona
Erom Seibel, Business Outreach Coordinator, Valley Metro Rail, Phoenix, Arizona
Robert Hastings, Project Architect, TriMet, Portland, Oregon
Ruben Landa, Business Outreach Coordinator, HDR/METRO, Phoenix, Arizona
Kathy Albert, Community Outreach Program Manager, Link Light Rail, Sound Transit, Seattle, Washington
Schatzie Allen-Jefferson, President, The Allen Group, LLC

View Hastings presentation (23 pages/1.3mb)
View Landa presentation (25 pages /0.5mb)
View Albert presentation (16 pages /1.2mb)
View Allen-Jefferson presentation (13 pages /0.7mb)

Instructive examples of the issues communities face as they seek social continuity with transit and development. The economic impact of TOD is a key benefit of transit investment, particularly in low income and minority communities where there are few ways to generate investment. At the same time, transit improvements can put communities at risk of gentrification, pushing out existing residents. The cases presented in this session include Baltimore stations where low-income communities co-exist with development, Denver where both development and social change came slowly and Chicago, where the community seeks an extension to promote development.

Moderator: Jack Stephens, Deputy Executive Director, South Florida Regional Transit Authority, Pompano Beach, Florida
Lou Turner, Research and Public Policy Director, Developing Communities Project, Chicago, Illinois
Henry Kay, Director, Baltimore Transit Alliance, Baltimore, Maryland
Karen Good, Senior City Planner, City and County of Denver, Colorado

View Kay presentation (18 pages /0.7mb)
View Good presentation (32 pages /1.9mb)

This session will provide election results and analysis for 2006 state and local transportation ballot measures, while also examining the trend of using voter-approved financing for transportation. On Election Day 2006, voters in more than 30 communities across the nation went to the polls to vote on ballot measure funding for public transportation. Ballot measures are an increasingly important source of funding for public transportation. Since 2000, these initiatives have a 70 percent approval rate, generating at least $70 billion in new investment. This session, held the morning after the election, will provide a complete post-election rundown of each race and a national analysis. In addition, the session will examine the growing trend in ballot box financing for transportation and the hallmarks of successful campaigns.

Jason Jordan, Director, Center for Transportation Excellence, Washington, DC

View Jordan presentation (44 pages /1.4mb)

Participate in this lively presentation and discussion about the strong commitment to pedestrian accessibility in European cities — a critical hallmark of those cities’ livability and sense of community — and how some of those attitudes can “jump the pond” and be adapted in U.S. cities. Learn from one of the world’s premier pedestrian experts and hear how Europeans’ attitudes toward pedestrians have evolved during the past 50 years. Hear his views on what U.S. cities need to do to increase their pedestrian potential. Also hear from the current CNU president, who has been described as a “fiscally-conservative socialist” and who is nationally recognized for his commitment to light rail and innovative, effective urban design. Learn about his views on the applicability of European pedestrian approaches in the U.S. — what could work, what challenges lie ahead, and what some U.S. cities have already done.

Roosevelt Bradley, Director, Miami Dade Transit, Miami, Florida

Moderator: Shelley Poticha, President and CEO, Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit Oriented Development, Oakland, California
Jan Gehl, Principal, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen, Denmark
John Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism, Chicago, Illinois