REPORT: How Austin's light rail implementation compares to transit industry best practices

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A national transit nonprofit organization is giving insight into how Austin's Project Connect light rail system development compares to best practices employed by other established light rail systems.

Accelerator for America Action released Tuesday its Project Connect living case study analysis, a six-part examination of the upcoming light rail system based on these criteria:

• Community engagement
• Governance
• Land use
• Permitting
• Procurement
• Project delivery

The goal of the living case study is "to track and support local efforts to design, engineer, and build the project 'on time and on budget,'" the report read in part. The assessment incorporated research utilized by the nonprofit think tank organization Eno Center for Transportation.

The bulk of the report found Project Connect's development processes fell in line with best practices employed for light rail system processes, specifically in the realms of establishing an independent agency to oversee development, community engagement initiatives and land use opportunities.

"These projects are very big. They're very complicated. They take a lot of time," said Bill McCamley, executive director of Transit Forward in Austin. "And there is a history in the United States of, sometimes, there being cost overruns or things going late. So it is so important that the people that we are entrusting our tax dollars to get this thing done are doing things the right way."

With Project Connect, voters approved the November 2020 proposition that included the creation of the Austin Transit Partnership, which oversees the design and construction of the Project Connect program. Under the living case study, a key recommendation flagged creating an independent entity to handle construction "before handing the ownership and operation back to the public agency."

On the community engagement side of things, the report said robust public feedback is critical to developing a system that best meets the needs and transportation appetites of city residents who come from a wide range of backgrounds. Prior to debuting the route for its revised, initial light rail investment, Project Connect officials said they received nearly 6,000 public comments during a six-week community engagement process.

Looking toward land use, researchers and study authors said land use policy can "dramatically impact the success or failure of transit system." It's also a key focal area for Project Connect leadership, given the weight the federal government gives projects' land use policymaking before allocating federal dollars.

The study noted recent steps taken by Austin city leaders, including the removal of minimum parking requirements, land development code updates and density bonus programs. Those, the study found, highlight an appetite for higher-density, more transit-oriented development on the city's horizons.

"More people that can live affordably and work near more bus stops and train stations allow for everyone to have more options in getting around town, and allow for a bigger success in the bus lines and train lines," McCamley said. "The federal government knows this, and you see in their requirements for their big grant money -- which Austin is going to need about $4 billion of to build the train lines -- they want cities being intentional about creating rules that allow for more people to be affordably working and living around these lines."

The primary area of improvement noted in the study for Project Connect's system development came in the area of permitting. The study's recommendation suggested projects should give permitting power to the agencies developing the program -- under the study's criteria, that would ideally be the Austin Transit Partnership. However, it did note efforts on the City of Austin's part to minimize delays in project permits.

Those efforts include the city's Project Connect Office sharing space with ATP to streamline communication and collaboration efforts between the city and ATP. The city also adopted new ordinances in 2022 to tweak permitting processes for mobility projects:

• Public mobility projects, like rails and trails, can now cross creeks and drainage areas the same as roads and streets
• The Project Connect "Fast Track" ordinance "modified the site plan process allowing for the greater flexibility necessary for alternate construction methods under consideration," per the study

With Accelerator for America tracking Project Connect's development as a living case study, future volumes of the study will revisit system progress, specifically looking at the project's deliver model, its procurement contract work and permitting efficacy.

Project Connect officials are also poised to give further insight into its draft environmental impact statement documents later this year. That draft analysis will review the project's total environmental, socioeconomic, geographic and cultural impacts under current plans, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act process for any projects with federal funding.

The complete study is available online.