Transportation Leaders Address Future of St. Pete Transit
~~SunRunner Rising Recommendations Work Toward a Vibrant Future for St. Pete ~~
ST. PETERSBURG, FL —- The Forward Pinellas Board, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), the City of St. Petersburg, and the City of South Pasadena have accepted the “SunRunner Rising Development Study” outlining recommendations for how we can create a SunRunner corridor that is vibrant, safe and accessible for everyone along the new SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit service in St. Petersburg, South Pasadena, and St. Pete Beach. These recommendations incorporated the community’s thoughts and ideas received through many different listening sessions and forums that focused on connecting our transportation network within the SunRunner corridor to allow people to easily get to work, restaurants, retail and recreation. The SunRunner is nearing completion of its construction phase and will be operating with passengers this September.
“We are excited to work with Forward Pinellas, the City of St. Petersburg, and the City of South Pasadena on the SunRunner Rising Development Study,” said Brad Miller, Chief Executive Officer of PSTA. “We know the recommendations will result in vibrant development that will benefit our community. Current and future residents and visitors to our county will be able to live, work and play in a sustainable way using the SunRunner as a primary means of travel.”
“It’s time to invest in transit throughout our communities. We know we still have a lot of work to do to provide access to homes, education and jobs throughout our county and region,” said Whit Blanton, Executive Director of Forward Pinellas. “We’re thankful for the excellent community and agency partnerships we’ve made throughout this study. The SunRunner Rising Development Study recommendations will ensure we’re setting this project and our communities up for success.”
Highlights from the recommendations of the SunRunner Rising Development Study include:
- Enhancing station area development that maximizes private investment and promotes ridership
- Creating wayfinding between SunRunner stops and local destinations
- Increasing bike and pedestrian connections from neighborhoods
- Promoting housing affordability through density bonuses and height increases in scale to the surrounding neighborhoods
- Increasing public-private partnerships especially to address rent stabilization
- Fostering workforce development partnerships increasing educational opportunities
- Exploring infrastructure investment value capture to support long term operations
The SunRunner Rising Development Study is a federally funded project through the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Transit-Oriented Development Pilot Program with a goal to integrate land use and transportation planning. Throughout the study, staff worked with community leaders to examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrians and bicyclists, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations. Next, staff will work to integrate these recommendations into the necessary policies and regulations, and determine funding opportunities to turn these ideas into reality.
For more information on the SunRunner Rising Development Study, visit: ForwardPinellas.org/SunRunnerRising
For more information on the SunRunner, visit: PSTA.net/SunRunner
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