Transportation Project Development Program

The Project Development Program works to move projects identified within the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP) from planning to schematic design. The Project Development team is responsible for establishing the feasibility of projects, conducting outreach with community members and stakeholders to refine project concepts, planning the projects, and providing information to the Project Delivery team for final design and construction. The intention is to provide residents, as well as other transportation service providers, community partners, the development community, and other stakeholders, with more detailed information about proposed and planned projects as their plans are being developed.

Projects within this program are identified in the Street Impact Fee (SIF) Roadway Capacity Plan (shown below). Projects developed through this program strive to incorporate the recently updated Transportation Criteria Manual, reflecting design criteria to create transportation facilities that are safe and provide opportunities for all modes, ages, and abilities.

Project Development Planning

As funding from the fee collection begins to accrue, project concepts are developed for review by the community for each of the high-priority projects across the 17 service areas. Click on the pages below to see more details about the high-priority projects in each service area.

Street Impact Fee Collection

The fee is collected at the time of building permit issuance, which began on June 21, 2022. The following tables summarize the fees collected to date. These tables are updated quarterly.

Table – Street Impact Fees Collected

Want to know more about the Street Impact Fee program? More information can be found on the Street Impact Fee website.

Project Development Prioritization Methodology

The SIF Roadway Capacity Plan included more than 1,100 projects on which the collected SIF can be spent. Based on the fee collection rate set by City Council and the assumed growth over the next ten years, the projects will not be fully funded by the SIF. Additionally, the Texas Local Government Code requires the City to be split into service areas no larger than six miles across, necessitating 17 service areas for SIF Implementation in Austin. Money collected in each service area must be spent in that service area. As a result, the 1,100+ projects were split into 17 lists and a methodology was established to prioritize the planning and potential spending on projects as fees are collected.

The Project Development team gathered metrics and ranking criteria, obtained feedback from internal City stakeholders, and established potential criteria for scoring projects. Criteria for scoring and ranking the projects were centered on public input from the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP). During that plan development, the community helped the Austin Transportation Department (ATD) create a list of eight Mobility Goals, prioritized as follows:

Affordability
Commuter Delay
Travel Choice
Health and Safety
Sustainability
Placemaking
Economic Prosperity
Innovation

The Project Development Program team created a list of values inspired by the ASMP Mobility Goals by which to score and rank projects. The scoring matrix uses the available metrics to reflect the following values:

Affordability
Safety
Equity
Access/Connectivity
Reliability
Mobility
Sustainability/Resiliency

More than 80 metrics were considered for inclusion, and 16 were ultimately chosen for inclusion. The initial scoring matrix reflects the projects that will be included in the first year of the project development process, not necessarily where money will be spent as other funds become available or as priorities change over the span of the SIF program.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Street Impact Fee?

The Street Impact Fee is a charge assessed on new development to pay for the construction or expansion of roadway facilities that are necessitated by and benefit that new development. The cost of transportation facility expansion is borne by developers as building permits are received.

How is the SIF determined?

The City completed a detailed technical study per Chapter 395 of the Texas Local Government Code to determine the maximum assessable Street Impact Fee.

The components of the calculation are land-use projections for residential population and employment for the next 10 years and a Capital Improvements Plan that only includes qualified improvements payable with impact fees for the same 10-year time horizon. This calculation is done for each service area, which can be no larger than six miles across. The maximum fee is calculated for each service area, and the City Council can set the fee for each service area between no fee and the maximum allowed per the technical study.

State law requires that impact fees be reviewed and updated at least once every five years. Chapter 395 establishes checks and balances to ensure that the impact fee is calculated fairly. These requirements include having licensed professional engineers prepare the required studies/analyses to establish a fee and having an advisory committee as part of the public process.

City Council approved the SIF study and established the SIF program in December of 2020 and set one fee for all service areas. For developers, the fee will be calculated based on the number of residential units or the square feet of commercial development included in their planned development at the time of building permit. Fees will begin to be collected for projects receiving building permits on or after June 21, 2022.

On which projects can SIF funds be spent?

The Roadway Capacity Plan is the required capital improvement plan for the study. The RCP is the list of projects eligible for funding through street impact fees. Projects that have private vehicle capacity improvements included in the City’s Street Network Map and Table, a component of the ASMP, are included in the RCP.

Capacity improvements may include the addition of lanes, some substandard street reconstruction, two-way street conversions, access management median installation, or the extension of a new road. Resurfacing or other maintenance activities do not qualify as capacity improvements under impact fee law in Texas. Intersection improvements were also identified and are included in the RCP. Only those projects listed in the RCP are eligible to utilize impact fee funds. For the purposes of the RCP, "roadway" means arterial or collector streets, together with all necessary components, such as curbs, gutters, sidewalks, drainage appurtenances, and rights-of-way. Projects that do not include a vehicle capacity element will not be eligible for construction via SIF funding.

All of the project costs for an arterial or collector facility that serves the overall transportation system are eligible to be included in the Street Impact Fee Roadway Capacity Plan. Allowable costs per Chapter 395 of the Texas Local Government Code include the construction cost, surveying and engineering fees, and land acquisition costs. Components that cannot be paid for through the SIF program include repair, operation, or maintenance of existing or new facilities, upgrades to serve existing development, and the administrative costs of operating the program.

What will the Project Development Process look like?

The ASMP includes planned improvements for all roadways, including noting missing sidewalks, planned bicycle facilities, and urban trails, and additional vehicle travel lanes. Roadways all have a future cross-section identified, and some intersections are noted for additional turn lanes and/or traffic signals. Through the project development process, ATD staff will identify available right-of-way, current facility quality and conditions, and planned future conditions. We will complete analysis to confirm future conditions are sufficient to serve future demand and determine if the available right-of-way is sufficient to accommodate the proposed roadway cross-section and intersection requirements.

We anticipate that some locations will not have sufficient right-of-way to include all planned elements. Based on technical analysis, community engagement, and City priorities, we will develop feasible options based on the available right-of-way and also ultimate design solutions to identify necessary right-of-way to complete the desired full project. Some projects will likely have interim designs included if a path to securing right-of-way is not clear or within the timeline of the ten-year program time span. Others may have full designs completed, and a period of time may pass before construction occurs if there is a path to securing complete right-of-way. We will be transparent about the decisions made and how these funds are spent throughout the program.

What do the 1,148 projects include?

There are four types of roadway projects included in the RCP: addition of lanes to existing roadways and substandard street reconstruction, two-way street conversions, access management median and center-turn lane installation, and new roadways. Additionally, new intersection turn lanes, lengthening of existing intersection turn lanes, traffic signal installation, and roundabout construction are also included in the program.

Of the 1,148 projects, more than 300 have already been planned or are in the process of being planned by another department and/or jurisdiction. Some of the projects are along 2016 Mobility Bond corridors and have been planned by the Corridor Program Office. Some projects are along State of Texas right-of-way and will be coordinated through TxDOT. Other projects are affected by Project Connect planning and ATD will defer to the Austin Transit Partnership team until alignments for the Orange and Blue Lines (initially) are settled. Some projects are anticipated to be built with future development, and a small percentage of projects have already been built.

When will we see projects constructed as a result of the SIF Project Development Program?

The fee will begin to be collected in the summer of 2022. It will likely take several developments to bring together enough funds for a highly-ranked project in each service area; as a result, use of SIF funds for construction may not occur until 2024 or later.

Get Involved

The Impact Fee Advisory Committee advises the City on its impact fee programs and approves reports twice yearly on each program.

Have questions for program staff? Email StreetImpactFee@AustinTexas.gov.