Oct 302023

White House Announces Plan to Use Transportation Funding to Convert Commercial Properties Into Residential Use

Samuel B. Boxerman and Aaron L. Flyer
, ,

On Friday, October 27, 2023, the White House announced an effort to utilize over $35 billion in federal assistance for affordable housing projects using funding appropriated under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing programs. The White House, through the Department of Transportation, is now seeking to use these programs, which provide lending support for transit-oriented development projects at below-market interest rates, to convert properties no longer needed for transit into residential properties and develop residential properties near public transportation hubs. The White House suggests that these conversions and development projects will not only provide necessary affordable residential housing capacity but also reduce greenhouse gas emission by repurposing existing structures and siting residential housing projects near public transportation hubs.

This post is as of the posting date stated above. Sidley Austin LLP assumes no duty to update this post or post about any subsequent developments having a bearing on this post.

Samuel B. Boxerman

Washington, D.C.

sboxerman@sidley.com

Aaron L. Flyer

Washington, D.C.

aflyer@sidley.com

You might also like
U.S. Federal Courts Vacate Federal Highway Administration Greenhouse Gas Rule

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Federal Highway Administration¸ No. 23-162 (W.D. Ky.), the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky vacated the Federal Highway Administration December 2023 Greenhouse Gas Rule (see our prior blog post here for a more detailed summary of the Rule). That rule, proposed in July 2022 and modeled off of a rule proposed by the Obama administration in 2017 but repealed by the Trump administration before it could take effect, sought to require each state to set declining targets for tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles on the National Highway System. Tuesday’s ruling follows a similar one from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on March 28, 2024, in State of Texas v. U.S. Dep’t of Trans. No. 23-304 (N.D. Tex.) that purported to vacate the rule nationwide.

The Newest Phase of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards: Phase 3

On March 29, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its most recent national greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution standards for heavy-duty (HD) vehicles, including HD vocational vehicles and tractors. The rule establishes new CO2 emission standards for model year (MY) 2032 and later HD vehicles, with more stringent CO2 standards phasing in as early as MY 2027 for certain vehicle categories.

U.S. Department of Transportation Publishes Final Rule on State Greenhouse Gas Performance Measures 

On December 7, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a final rule providing state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) a national framework to track transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and set targets for reduction. The rule adds a new GHG performance management measure to the existing FHWA national performance measures and creates a system under which state DOTs and MPOs must set targets for reducing roadway travel GHG emissions. Stakeholders that contract with states to build infrastructure should take note of these new mandates.