Formal partnership announced to prioritize transit-oriented development [Video]

BALTIMORE — The state’s housing and transportation leaders will now officially prioritize building developments around Maryland’s transit stations.

Maryland Department of Transportation signed a formal agreement with the Department of Housing and Community Development to focus on speeding up “dense, mixed-use and mixed-income development within a half-mile of transit stations, also known as transit-oriented development,” according to a new press release.

The departments will especially prioritize building affordable housing that’s funded by the housing department.

State Housing Secretary Jake Day noted that the state is 96,000 housing units short of what it needs, according to a press release – and “the development of dense housing around transit is critical to addressing our state’s housing shortage…”

The two departments will now work together to find new developments that can be built around transit stations.

Maryland currently has 14 stations designated for transit-oriented development.

In the Baltimore region, they includethe Owings Mills Metro, Penn Station in Baltimore, Westport light rail, …