Denver RTD initiates preliminary study of eight park-n-rides
The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) has initiated a preliminary study of eight park-n-rides in the district that have low parking usage and might better serve the public if converted to other uses, such as affordable housing. The agency notes the project is being made possible by a $400,000 technical assistance grant the agency received that is administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau (BAB).
Denver RTD owns dozens of park-n-rides, and the agency’s transit-oriented development (TOD) team has done extensive work to evaluate them for use and basic development feasibility. In early 2024, the team identified 16 park-n-rides that hold joint development potential and analyzed three of them in detail in 2025.
The agency says that through the BAB grant, the TOD team has a contract with AECOM to expand its work plan, covering eight stations at once and to consider financing options such as those available through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA).
“[Denver] RTD owns a good amount of land and a lot of it is underutilized for parking,” said Denver RTD TOD Manager Chessy Brady. “There is a lot of interest in affordable housing right now from the state, jurisdictions and developers. [Denver] RTD needs to determine if we can remove empty parking spaces and replace them with homes for low-income residents, who then also will be transit customers. Because the land that we’re focused on is at stations, it all has excellent transit access. It’s a win-win.”
The agency says that while no development is currently planned at these locations, when the project concludes toward the end of next year, it expects to have a full understanding of transit parking needs, neighborhood context, development feasibility, infrastructure needs, TIFIA potential and next steps for each location. The station park-n-rides selected for the study are 41st•Fox, Aurora Metro Center, Belleview, County Line, Colorado, Federal Center, Littleton•Downtown and Littleton•Mineral.
“[Denver] RTD needs to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence so that we have enough parking spaces now and in the future to support the transit system and also to use our land wisely to build ridership and to be a partner in the economic health of the region,” Brady said.