Building regional transit infrastructure and associated transit-oriented communities takes many years, yet its success depends on clear objectives established early in the process. Learning to anticipate the challenges of building an efficient and economically viable transit system with ample opportunities for the private sector creates value for governments, their agencies, and local stakeholders who benefit from improvements in their communities. This session will demonstrate how successful preplanning for development and community building requires the integration of design, policy, and economics to create innovative solutions that yield tangible results and respond to regional growth considerations. This session will show how to broker effective urban planning and design solutions—from the technical requirements of station design to priming a physical and economic landscape. Considering these and many other factors well in advance clarifies the role of private- and public-sector investment while mitigating risk and maximizing the benefits of large-scale regional transportation infrastructure projects.

Fifteen-minute communities hold the promise of accelerating decarbonization, increasing housing affordability, reducing climate and health risks, and fostering social equity. This approach to city building lays a foundation for developing compact, mixed-use, and walkable communities that can increase real estate value, create co-benefits for joint use and co-location, and generate new resources to help invest in local communities. The ULI Curtis Infrastructure Initiative created Building 15-Minute Communities: A Leadership Guide to share actionable leadership strategies across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to decarbonize metro regions with a network of 15-minute transit-oriented communities; diversify urban central business districts into affordable, live-in downtowns; humanize edge cities into heat-proof, resilient, retirement, and child-friendly communities; densify suburban corridors into walkable, mixed-use innovation districts; transform suburban malls into transit and trail-oriented mixed-use communities; and activate exurbs as working landscapes of agrihoods and nature-based solutions. Learn about this practical tool for aligning leadership actions to implementation.