Philadelphia Construction Law Blog

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (“SEPTA”) recently released its annual report focusing on the theme of sustainability, aptly titled “SEP-TAINABLE”. In that report, SEPTA commits to partnering with developers, municipalities, and other organizations to invest in various Transit-Oriented Development (“TOD”) projects, which are high-density mixed-used development projects within a half mile of public transportation. Specifically, SEPTA announced that it intends to engage in one TOD per year.

This summer, Pennsylvania became another in a lengthening list of states to pass legislation relating allowing public entities to enter agreements with private developers to manage the public entity’s interest in public projects. In essence, public transportation projects like toll roads can now be turned over to private entities to build, manage, and care for in return for a profit. The difference between this and the more traditional approach is that while the state or local governmental entity still owns the property in a technical sense, a private entity is the practical owner.