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RECOMMENDATIONS
TOD projects do not seem to be prioritized over non-TOD requests. Based on a review of TOD requests and the amounts that were funded, it seems highly variable and difficult to predict what will or will not be funded. Additionally, the percentage of requests being funded range from 31% in 2017 to 77% in 2019 (See appendix I). A weak connection between council recommendations and funding success is likely to dampen member commitment to the council and encourage agencies to focus their energies elsewhere.
1. The governor and the Legislature should use CIP Funds to incentivize collaboration: Reward good teamwork, not individual requests.
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Awarding funding to individual agencies with TOD related projects is less effective than providing funds for collaborative inter-agency TOD projects. Council members need to know that the benefits of being team players outweigh the costs of compromise and the time and resources required to create collaborative plans. Providing funding for TOD plans creates incentives to take collaborative efforts seriously. To achieve this, the Governor and Legislature must prioritize CIP funding requests that have the support of the TOD Council.
2. Work to secure funds that the council can use to provide seed-money grants to help agencies with TOD projects.
The TOD Council should reward collaboration by providing seed-money grants in the range of $25,000 - $100,000 to support TOD projects that result from inter-agency planning. Smaller budget items that can stimulate TOD development include site plans, design and engineering consultations, small business support, art funding to generate interest in a site, and communication support to attract private and federal funding.
A featured speaker at a TOD Council meeting, Kelly Kline, talked about using $100,000 of funds during her time as Chief Innovation Officer for Fremont, California to bring regular art activities to an underutilized site in the downtown area for a year. The positive press attention, added foot traffic and creative activities helped to transform perceptions of the area and ultimately attract many times more private investment than the initial $100,000 investment. In this case, a one-time expenditure of public funds was able to help jump-start urban revitalization.
Even a relatively small discretionary budget of $1 - $2 million could support collaborative efforts and provide crucial support to TOD projects. The ability to reward good ideas, even on a limited basis, will improve agency morale and enhance the role of the council.
TOD SUCCESS STORY: HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
Rewarding teamwork and good planning is what Hennepin County, Minnesota (pop. 1.2 million) has used to jump-start development along light-rail lines in Minneapolis and surrounding cities for decades. Starting in the mid 1990s, the county created a “Community Works” program to spark investment in economically depressed communities, and to support development along new light rail corridors. Over 20 years later, the program has attracted more than $883 million in private and public investment, and it is nationally recognized as an effective way to promote economic development. Over the years, the county has contributed $94 million in funding toward various “Community Works” projects, which then catalyzed another $789 million in federal, city and private investment. Every dollar spent by the county was matched by $8 from other sources. The projects have also been successful at economic development; the average increase in property values near community works projects is 17 points higher than surrounding areas.
Patricia Fitzgerald, the manager of the “Community Works” program, credits a yearly capital fund of $2.2 million to support project requests as critical to agency buy-in and collaboration. Even though “Community Works” support is often in the $10,000 - $100,000 range, it generates partner support and confidence in a project. Also, outside agencies now turn to “Community Works” for advice on proposed projects and how to best attract investment. Some amount of seed funding can go a long way towards fostering collaborative efforts and project implementation.
3. The TOD Council should improve the process for communicating to the governor and Legislature how CIP requests are strategic and cost effective.
Even within the current CIP funding structure, the council can better demonstrate how TOD projects can catalyze private investment, support affordable housing goals and fit into the larger vision of sustainable communities. TOD requests can be framed as addressing multiple policy objectives at once, and a strategic way to leverage the $9.2 Billion committed to the rail line by incentivizing development along the rail.
4. Continue to realize efficiencies of conducting important TOD planning work as a council.
The council should continue to bundle the planning needs of multiple agencies into larger efforts such as the infrastructure plan currently underway. According to several agencies, a helpful next step would be a market analysis of state priority areas, which could build upon a study currently underway by the county to analyze the market across the entire corridor. By starting with the county study, the state can save resources and expand the scope in priority areas.
Along the same lines of aggregating agency needs, the council could also enact centralized procurement for common planning services needed by multiple departments. For example, it is usually helpful to consult designers, architects and engineers when considering a project. Instead of having each agency procure these services separately, OP could enter into a master agreement with a consultant and then any agency who needed their services could contract services without having to perform an RPF process. This would save significant transaction costs and hopefully encourage agency focus on TOD areas.
If council members are consistently reminded that TOD is a priority for the governor, then TOD projects will naturally rise on the priority list as will dedication of time and resources towards TOD planning. One way to create consistent communication between the governor and TOD Council members is to create a subcabinet which meets regularly.
This is how the City and County of Honolulu has fostered TOD collaboration between departments. The mayor hosts a TOD subcabinet meeting every two weeks where hard conversations and detailed negotiations can occur. Which department will take the lead on relocating utilities for a block? Are there departments with parcels of land that are underutilized which could be re-purposed towards TOD objectives? Having a subcabinet with members that have the authority to make these types of decisions, with oversight from the governor, would facilitate negotiations that are critical to moving development forward.
TOD SUCCESS STORY: CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
The influence of the mayor was key to the success of TOD in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Brian Nadolny a Project Manager with the Charlotte Area Transit System. Similar to Honolulu, the mayor of Charlotte would convene all the involved decisionmakers to work on TOD plans and then report on their progress. Over the course of several
different city administrations, each new mayor remained a strong advocate of TOD and pushed departments to prioritize TOD projects. The focus on the development around light rail stations was effective and contributed to the enormous success of light rail. When the rail first opened ridership was predicted to be 9,000 passengers a day. It turned out to be 15,000 people a day – a 67% increase over the prediction. Not only did ridership increase, but tens of thousands of units of affordable housing were built near station areas as a result of development incentives and inclusionary zoning. A TOD subcabinet in the Office of the Governor would provide incentive and structure to catalyze TOD projects.
6. Explore how the state and county can leverage their resources and interdependence for mutual benefit.
The complexity of development and the ways a single project is impacted by both state and county authority and funding can be an obstacle to efficiency and an impediment to attracting private investment. However, it also presents opportunities when an improvement in one jurisdiction results in significant benefits to the other and advances the goals of both. Although a detailed analysis of how county authority and financial support affects state projects is beyond the scope of this study, future studies could determine which resources or process improvements might have the biggest impact on TOD success.
Even without a more comprehensive analysis here are a couple suggestions for how the interdependence of the county and state can be leveraged for mutual benefit:
7.1 Performance incentives from the state to the county for process improvements, such as construction permitting.
A common way for a jurisdiction with more resources to influence another is by financially rewarding changes and innovations. The federal government will frequently award money to states who have improved a process that is of interest on a national level such as teacher evaluations, emergency management planning, and criminal justice reform.
7.2 Leverage information from funded studies to benefit both jurisdictions.
Since the state and county both stand to gain from successful TOD, each jurisdiction has funded various studies to support development in TOD areas. The county funded a study on infrastructure improvements for the Iwilei-Kapalama TOD area. At the same time, the state funded a study on state lands in TOD areas, which partly includes the Iwilei-Kapalama area. Similarly, the county has commissioned studies on market feasibility in TOD areas, while the state department of education recently hired a demographer which could provide valuable information about demographic and subsequently market shifts in TOD areas.
As much as possible, the state and county should optimize funded studies to provide information that is useful for both jurisdictions. For example, if the state funds an environmental study for the Mayor Wright development, it would be cost effective to expand the parameters and include the entire TOD station area, thereby eliminating the need for a second and perhaps duplicative study by the county.
8. Increase public support through communication strategies that make the goals and positive impact of TOD clear.
Currently, the messaging around TOD is overshadowed by the rail project, which has been contentious on multiple levels. Clear, consistent, and compelling messaging should link TOD with issues of greatest importance to the public such as affordable housing, reducing traffic, increasing job opportunities and creating sustainable communities. In Los Angeles, California, a sales tax that contributed to TOD projects was passed utilizing data from focus groups, and strategizing how the tax would be messaged to the public to increase buy-in. Well-tested messaging can increase public
