New York’s Commission on Sustainability and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) have released interim recommendations to promote environmental sustainability through transit. The recommendations address three areas – renewable energy, green standards and transit-oriented development (TOD). The panel proposes creating a partnership among agencies in the Governor’s Smart Cabinet to facilitate development near stations throughout the MTA service area – an idea modeled on the New Jersey Transit Village Initiative. Agencies have been charged with creating incentives to encourage development around MTA stations. Furthermore, the MTA has been asked to create a “web-based one-stop shopping opportunity” where communities interested in transit-supportive development may obtain information.
Commission members who have lent their support to TOD include the chair, Jonathan F. P. Rose, president of Jonathan Rose Companies LLC; Priscilla Almodovar, president and CEO of the NY State Housing Finance Agency; and Paul D. Tonko, president and CEO of the NY Power Authority. Almodovar said, “Building housing near transit means people can live closer to where they work, thereby reducing the amount of energy consumed by their daily commute.”