FY 2026 Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning
This program funds comprehensive or site-specific transit-oriented development planning tied to an eligible new fixed guideway or core capacity transit capital project for existing FTA grantees or corridor entities with land-use authority.
⚑ Applicants must be existing FTA grantees as of the NOFO publication date. · Applicant must be either the sponsor of an eligible transit capital project or an entity with land-use planning authority in the corridor; partnership evidence required unless one entity has both roles. · Planning must be associated with a new fixed guideway project or core capacity improvement project as defined in 49 U.S.C. 5309(a).
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 25 weak | funds applied research; deep-tech content |
| IPPRA | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
Description
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for approximately $28.5 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 funding. The Pilot Program for TOD Planning helps support FTA’s mission of improving public transportation for America’s communities by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning around a new fixed guideway or core capacity improvement project. Per statute, any comprehensive or site specific planning funded through the program must examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations.
Eligibility
Any comprehensive or site-specific planning work proposed for funding under this program must be associated with an eligible transit capital project, namely a new fixed guideway project or a core capacity improvement project as defined in Section 5309(a) of title 49, United States Code. These statutory definitions are also provided in Section 2 of the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). Projects are not required to be within the Capital Investment Grants Program. Applicants and eventual grant recipients under this program must be existing FTA grantees as of the publication date of the NOFO. A proposer must either be the project sponsor of an eligible transit capital project as defined above or an entity with land use planning authority in an eligible transit capital project corridor. Evidence of a partnership between these two types of entity will be required unless the applicant has both responsibilities. Please refer to the NOFO for further information.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Johnita S Glover Transportation Program Analyst <April.McLeanMcCoy@dot.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · Federal (generic) conventions SEE A FEDERAL EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — Federal (generic)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.
Legacy IPPRA LLM assessment (v2.0, for comparison)
22/100 · gpt-5.4-mini · 2026-07-06
This is a transit land-use planning grant, not a research opportunity, and it is primarily aimed at FTA grantees or entities with transit/corridor planning authority. While TOD planning can touch environmental and community policy, the NOFO emphasizes implementation-oriented planning for ridership, multimodal access, and mixed-use development rather than social-science research or evaluation that IPPRA would lead.
Legacy scoring history
| 2026-07-06 | 22 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is a transit land-use planning grant, not a research opportunity, and it is primarily aimed at FTA grantees or entities with transit/corridor planning authority. While TOD planning can touch environmental and community policy, the NOFO emphasizes implementation-oriented planning for ridership, multimodal access, and mixed-use development rather than social-science research or evaluation that IPPRA would lead. |
| 2026-07-06 | 35 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is primarily a transit land-use planning opportunity focused on transportation infrastructure, ridership, multimodal connectivity, and development around stations. IPPRA’s human-behavior, risk-communication, and survey strengths do not map strongly onto the core technical/planning work here, though there could be limited policy-research relevance if a partner were studying community acceptance or accessibility impacts. Eligibility is also restrictive: applicants must already be FTA grantees and either the transit project sponsor or a land-use authority in the corridor, so a public university would not normally qualify as the lead applicant. |