The news emerged last week, and official word came today. Atlanta won a $47 million U.S. DOT grant to help it build a proposed $72 million streetcar line. Here’s a link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article with details. Salt Lake City also won a streetcar grant, for $26 million, and Los Angeles won $20 million for its Crenshaw/LAX light rail line. Yonah Freemark of The Transport Politic offers an analysis here. He notes that of the $600 million total in these so-called TIGER II grants most went to small-scale projects in small and mid-size cities for street improvements, building transit centers, and rehabilitating freight lines. Here’s a link to the USDOT site where you can find the list of capital project grants and the list of planning grants.
Asheville won an $850,000 planning grant for its East Riverside Sustainable Multimodal Neighborhood plan. The project will “integrate existing master plans and revise codes and regulations (emphasis mine) to create sustainable development.” For a bit more information, see Page 22 of the link for planning grants.