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Transit-Friendly Communities Guide

The Transit-Friendly Communities Guide is your roadmap to creating equitable neighborhoods across the Chicago region that are safe and accessible to transit. This comprehensive resource, published by the RTA in January 2025, provides local decision-makers, developers, and community advocates with strategies and tools to design thriving communities centered around transit.

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Download the guide

The RTA developed this guide as an actionable resource to support transit-friendly design and equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD). With a focus on improving accessibility, walkability, and sustainability, the guide offers practical solutions to create vibrant spaces where people can live, work, and play—while reducing reliance on cars. This guide is a direct implementation step of the RTA's strategic plan, Transit is the Answer.


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Key features of the guide

The Transit-Friendly Communities Guide is full of tools to make transit more accessible to more people throughout the region and support residential and commercial development near transit. Across various topics, the Guidebook includes strategies and techniques that local decision-makers, the development community, and residents throughout the region can use to advocate for best practices on infrastructure and development near transit.

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  • Transit-Friendly Design Concepts: Explore strategies for integrating transit access, walkability, and bike-friendly infrastructure into your community.

  • Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD): Learn how ETOD principles ensure access to transit and amenities for people of all incomes and abilities.

  • Land Use & Market Trends: Understand how changing demographics and consumer preferences drive opportunities for transit-friendly development.

  • Case Studies & Best Practices: Dive into real-world examples of transit-friendly projects from across the region and beyond.

  • Implementation Toolkit: Access a detailed checklist of policies, programs, and strategies to bring transit-friendly concepts to your community.

Get involved

Find out how to apply for support and learn more about the guide

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Community Planning applications open soon

Looking for additional support to implement transit-friendly development in your community? The RTA’s Community Planning Program offers funding, technical assistance, and resources to help municipalities create and adopt transit-oriented development strategies.

📅 Mark your calendar! The next call for Community Planning projects opens March 10, 2025. Visit www.rtachicago.org/cp for more information when the call opens.

The RTA will host a webinar on the Transit-Friendly Communities Guide on March 4, 2025. Register here.

Attend a webinar

Join RTA Chicago for a webinar designed for municipal planners, elected officials, planning agency staff, local government board members, and the public.

RTA Chicago’s Transit-Friendly Communities Guide: Resources and Success Stories

Date and time

Tuesday, March 4th noon-1 p.m. Central time (virtual) 

What

The session will feature a presentation of the RTA’s new Transit-Friendly Communities Guide, which provides a range of tools to make transit more accessible to more people throughout the region and support residential and commercial development near transit. A panel discussion will follow featuring Chicago-area planners who have successfully applied the Guide’s best practices to foster equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) in their communities.

Attendees will learn how to use the Guide to create transit-friendly communities, including design concepts, access infrastructure, transportation and land use policies and strategies for equitably engaging community members. There will be an opportunity for audience questions during the panel discussion.

Speakers

Moderator

Robert Morris, AICP Principal Analyst, RTA Chicago (he/him)

Robert is a Principal Analyst in the RTA’s Local Planning and Program Management Division. In his role with the RTA, Robert manages projects in several RTA programs including the Community Planning, Access to Transit, and Section 5310 (Enhanced Mobility of Seniors & Individuals with Disabilities) programs. Robert works with communities across the Chicagoland region to create local plans, update zoning codes, study transit corridors, and implement transit access infrastructure improvements. Before joining the RTA, Robert worked in municipal planning in Ohio with stops at the City of Columbus and Marion County Regional Planning Commission. Robert enjoys exploring and eating his way through new cities, often on a bike, bus, or train.

Panelists

Amanda Orenchuk, AICP, Director of Community Development, Village of Mundelein (she/her)


Amanda is an experienced Community Development Director with a demonstrated history of working with government administration. In her role as Community Development Director at the Village of Mundelein, Amanda is responsible for creating opportunities for job growth by identifying industrial and flex spaces; for laying foundations to attract new businesses and development; for administering TIF; for reporting on the Comprehensive Plan; for amending the Zoning Ordinance; and for improving the public space and built environment.

Pete Saunders, AICP, Community and Economic Development Director, Village of Richton Park, (he/him)

Pete has more than twenty years’ experience working in planning, with a focus in neighborhood, community and economic development, and in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He specializes in community and neighborhood revitalization planning projects, economic and community development and analysis, and has successfully managed TOD and community development efforts in the Village of Richton Park since 2020.

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