Transit Briefs: Denver RTD; Sound Transit; WMATA; WSP-USA

Denver Regional Transit District’s (RTD) Board of Directors has adopted a new five-year strategic plan. In addition, Sound Transit is teaming with the city of Seattle to address homelessness; Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) will redevelop the West Falls Church (Va.) Metro Station site; and WSP USA’s Tanya Adams and Ruben Landa have been elected to the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials’ (COMTO) National Board for the 2021-23 term.

RTD’s strategic plan (download below), “Change, Challenge, and Connections,” covers four agency priorities: community value, customer excellence, employee ownership and financial success. Developed by General Manager and CEO Debra A. Johnson, RTD’s executive leadership team and the 15-member Board, it provides a road map for initiatives and programs RTD will undertake over the coming year; includes a framework for measuring success beyond the one-year period; details RTD’s goals as well as the steps to attain them; and articulates RTD’s mission, vision and values.

During the nine months since Johnson assumed RTD’s top leadership role, “she has observed that the agency is recognized as an industry leader—and has also weathered a fair share of challenges and criticism for not having clearly defined organizational strategies, priorities and processes,” according to RTD.

“I was able to ascertain that RTD needed to challenge itself to do business differently,” Johnson said. “I believe that public transportation is the great societal equalizer, connecting people to opportunities. Our customers and our community will see an RTD workforce committed to delivering measurable value and communicating these results in a clear and transparent fashion.”

Sound Transit—the regional transit system serving the Seattle and Central Puget Sound area in Washington state—has entered into an agreement with the city of Seattle to lease, at no cost, a former construction site and build a temporary tiny-home village. The one-year lease can be renewed up to three years. Sound Transit intends to convert the property to a permanent TOD (transit-oriented development) in 2024.

Rosie’s Tiny Home Village will be located at 45th Street and Roosevelt Avenue, where the construction offices for the University District light rail station had been housed. (The station will open Oct. 2 as part of the Northgate Link extension.) The city will manage the village, and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) will run it. It is slated to provide up to 36 furnished residential units and house up to 65 people. The village will include shared kitchens, bathrooms, offices and other community spaces.

“This partnership is an example of how Sound Transit is working with cities to address the urgent challenges facing people experiencing homelessness,” Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said. “This innovative use of property first used for construction staging when building our new U District station is helping us tackle the most critical need burdening our region. We are grateful to the elected leaders of Seattle in partnering with us on this effort and look forward to the groundbreaking later this fall.”

WMATA signed an agreement with FGCP-Metro, LLC, an affiliated partnership with EYA LLC (EYA), Hoffman & Associates and Rushmark Properties, for the redevelopment of the West Falls Church Metro Station site. WMATA said the project—which will create a mixed-used community with more than 1 million square feet of office, retail and residential space—is a result of a multi-year effort between the agency, the joint development team and Fairfax County. On July 13, 2021, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to its Comprehensive Plan to support development of both the WMATA site and the adjoining Virginia Tech site.

Over the next year, FGCP-Metro, LLC will go through Fairfax County’s rezoning process to advance the design and planning for the station site. Construction is slated to begin in 2023.

“Building transit-oriented development is an important strategy for managing many of this region’s most pressing challenges, such as traffic congestion, sustainability, housing production and transit ridership recovery,” Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Wiedefeld said. “The West Falls Church Metro Station is a unique opportunity that will convert underutilized parking lots to provide housing, jobs and economic opportunities, and create a cohesive development plan with the adjacent publicly owned sites.”

“The plan presents an opportunity to better align the West Falls Church Transit Station Area with the County’s Transit Oriented Development Guidelines,” Fairfax County Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said. “I am pleased that it envisions a vibrant mixed-use, pedestrian friendly environment and attractive public spaces, while respecting nearby established residential communities.”

WSP USA Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity Tanya Adams has been named Chair of the National Board of Directors for COMTO; she served most recently as First Vice Chair. She is joined on the 10-member Board by Ruben Landa, WSP’s Texas Business Leader for the Communication and Public Involvement Practice and Senior Communications Manager. Landa, who served previously on the COMTO National Board as the Council of Presidents (COP) Representative, is now At-Large Member.

COMTO’s mission is “to eliminate barriers to maximum participation for minority individuals, veterans, people with disabilities and certified MWDBE [minority, women and disadvantaged business enterprise] businesses through leadership training, professional development, scholarship and internship funding, political advocacy, partnership building and networking opportunities,” according to the organization.

Adams joined COMTO in 2007, and has served on the Corporate Advisory Council, Program and Planning Committee, Women Who Move the Nation Nomination Committee, and Joint Leadership Committee. In 2016, she was recognized as COMTO’s Corporate Executive of the Year, and has also earned the organization’s President’s Excellence Award.

Adams has spent 15 years at WSP, and previously served more than 18 years at the Illinois Department of Transportation as Employment Specialist. In 2015, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the Board of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Illinois, and in 2018, she was named WTS-Chicago’s Woman of the Year.

“I am humbled and honored that COMTO has entrusted me with this extremely important leadership role,” Adams said. “I am committed to making sure that we continue to build upon the great strides this important organization has made over the past 50 years.”

Landa brings more than 20 years of experience in public involvement, public affairs, communications and diversity program management in the architecture, engineering and construction industry to his new role on the COMTO National Board. His background includes developing and managing public involvement and diversity programs on major transportation projects on behalf of agencies such as the Texas Department of Transportation, Houston METRO, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, DFW International Airport, city of Dallas, Houston Airport System, Arizona Department of Transportation, and Valley Metro Rail in Phoenix.

Landa has been a member of COMTO for 21 years, having served in leadership roles with the COMTO Houston, Phoenix and Dallas chapters. He is currently President of the COMTO North Texas Chapter. He was named a Top Minority Business Leader by the Dallas Business Journal in 2014, and was the WTS Greater DFW Chapter Honorable Ray LaHood Award winner in 2019.