Sound Transit to provide quarterly updates on implementation of a regional equitable transit oriented development (TOD) strategy. The TOD program is empowered by the voter‐ approved plan to create diverse, vibrant and mixed‐income communities around transit. To achieve these outcomes, Sound Transit offers its surplus properties—those acquired for building and operating the transit system but no longer provide a transit use to the agency—as development opportunities for affordable housing or other developments benefiting the public. Capitol Hill Housing has completed the Station House affordable housing development adjacent to the Capitol Hill Link station and part of the larger transit-oriented development project at that site. Station house is composed of 110 units of affordable housing at 60% Area Median Income (AMI) and below.
The project also includes community meeting space for the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The initial submittals of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Operations Maintenance Facility East (OMF East) TOD site closed on February 25. The RFP seeks a master development team that will deliver a mixed-use, mixed-income project and included portions of the property being transferred at no-cost for affordable housing components from Sound Transit and the City of Bellevue as well as affordable housing financial assistance from King County and A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH). A short list of proposers were advanced into the final RFP process with a current closing date at the end of May 2020. Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) completed an Affordable Housing Needs Assessment of the current state of regional affordable housing financing resources in the state of Washington and identifying gaps in affordable housing finance that Sound Transit’s $20 million contribution to a revolving loan fund could address. LISC began development of a business plan that will inform how the Sound Transit’s contribution will be deployed within the Sound Transit district. The Roosevelt TOD project received its 4% tax credit allocation in January; the project is now fully funded and is working towards a May construction start, pending any COVID-19 delays.
The adoption of Sound Transit’s Equitable TOD Policy (R2018‐10) in 2018, the agency began refining its process and guidelines to articulate how the agency uses its surplus property portfolio to implement the policy. Much of 2018 and 2019 were used to pilot ways to implement the policy and those lessons learned will be applied to the guidelines, as well as a strategic plan for the program. Guidelines are being developed for transaction requirements and development strategies for surplus properties. The strategic plan for the TOD property portfolio is in scoping, expected to start work in Q2 2020. A key aspect of delivering a regional equitable TOD strategy is ensuring that stations are located and designed in a manner that supports good land use and development outcomes. To this end, OLUPD staff are embedded in capital project teams to lead station planning and urban design efforts during the project development and early engineering phases.