In April, the City of Tempe was selected as one of 64 recipients from 42 states for the inaugural FY 2022 US Department of Transportation Thriving Communities program.

Tempe is one of 14 cities in the Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods Community of Practice. It is the only Complete Neighborhood in Arizona and only one of three in the Southwest. There were 311 total applications in the inaugural application pool.  Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods are focused on urban and suburban communities located within metropolitan regions working to advance equitable transit-oriented development and improve safe, reliable and accessible transit service. 

The City of Tempe will receive two years of no-cost intensive technical assistance. Capacity builders help recipients prepare application materials and predevelopment activities to co-design and advance infrastructure projects that address critical social, economic, environmental, and mobility needs.

The project proposal aims to maximize the use of the light rail to promote equitable and place-based transit-oriented development in the Apache Corridor. The project will demonstrate how to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions, while also creating strong local economies. 

The Capacity Builder team will engage community-based organizations and disadvantaged business enterprises. Two of the Tempe-based community organizations are RAIL CDC and Pinnacle Prevention. The Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER) at ASU will serve as a research partner, and Culdesac as a private sector partner. These partner organizations, together with the City of Tempe, submitted the Thriving Communities proposal.

The Thriving Communities program aims to expand the pool of communities that can effectively compete for federal funding, including the historic funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (source). Note that the City of Tempe will not receive funding, but instead will be paired with technical assistance providers that will support the project team in applying for funds to support the project plans. 

The capacity building partner for Tempe's cohort is WSP USA, Inc. and its partners – Accelerator for America, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners.

CONTACT:

Brianne Fisher, (480) 350-8959, brianne_fisher@tempe.gov