Resources & Tools

by Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Development and Infrastructure Planner
with Scott Hansen, Transportation Planner

Understanding that Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a multidisciplinary, deliberative approach to incorporating principles of smart growth into new and/or redevelopment projects, it only makes sense to bring together key state agencies to create a single go-to TOD site. A new webpage has been created via a partnership among four Maryland agencies: the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the Maryland Department of Planning (Planning), the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), and the Maryland department of Commerce (Commerce). These agencies have collaborated to provide links to many of their individual and collective geospatial resources and tools in one location (see image of home screen below). 

Also on this page, the agencies articulate their TOD goals and priorities, as well as highlight the expertise and services they can offer local governments, private developers looking to invest within a TOD designated area, and the general public. Planning describes how TOD relates to land use and resource planning; DHCD offers information on TOD and affordable housing; MDOT provides data on multi-modal transportation and real estate; and Commerce relates private investment, job creation, workforce training, and development to opportunities for TOD across the state.

There are links to numerous mapping tools and datasets created and maintained by the four agencies on the web page that are useful to anyone interested in TOD opportunities in Maryland. For example, there is a link to MDOT’s Maryland Incentive Zones webpage, which features an interactive map showing the state’s Sustainable Communities, Opportunity Zones, and where these two programs coincide geographically (see the “tile” in the right column, middle row in the image below). Other examples of resources and tools accessible on this page are Planning’s Transit Station Area Profile Tool (TSAPT — about which we’ve written in past editions of this e-newsletter), Commerce’s map locating Maryland’s Economic Development Partners across the state (second column, middle row), and DHCD’s Multi-Family Mapper tool (second column, bottom row).

For questions or comments about Maryland’s new inter-agency TOD webpage, contact Transportation Planner Scott Hansen at scott.hansen@maryland.gov or by phone at (410) 767-4611.