In Case You Missed It!

by Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training Planner

The Transit Station Area Profile Tool (TSAPT), first detailed in our June and August 2019 editions, is an online mapping and dashboard tool designed by Planning staff to assist professionals, investors, and citizens when planning around transit stations. Such transportation “nodes” or “activity centers” are generally known as Transit Oriented Development (TODs).

In January, ESRI (a geographic information software company known for its ArcGIS products) wrote an article about the Maryland Department of Planning’s (Planning’s) TSAPT that was featured in the NY Times. At Planning, we are proud that our tool has gained national recognition and can benefit TOD planning and implementation.

Developed by Infrastructure and Development Planner Supervisor, Scott Hansen, in partnership with Planning’s division of Planning Data and Research and with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), the TSAPT takes a comprehensive look at available data to encourage TODs. It helps make previously disparate sources of information more readily available to communities and citizens by providing users socio-economic, demographic, employment, median housing sales, ridership, and other information about Maryland’s rail transit station areas. The tool focuses on ease-of-use and provides a broad set of data to meet the needs of stakeholders, including real estate agents, developers, investors, planners, and prospective homebuyers.

Using the tool, planners and staff from various local and state agencies can also better describe the benefits of TODs and their positive impacts to surrounding communities.

Read more about the benefits and uses of the TSAPT, together with stories about other infrastructure projects across the globe, on ESRI’s website and in the in the New York Times.

For more information about the Transit Station Area Profile Tool (TSAPT), please contact Scott Hansen, Infrastructure and Development Planner Supervisor, at scott.hansen@maryland.gov.