To help StarMetro ensure public transportation is accessible, efficient and equitable, The City of Tallahassee has identified construction of a Southside Transit Center (SSTC) on the northwest corner of Orange Avenue and Meridian Street as a strategic initiative. The SSTC will be a major step in assuring Tallahassee has an efficient transit network supported by leading public transit services. This parcel of land is located within the larger Orange/Meridian Placemaking Project, including stormwater improvements and other related infrastructure needs. These combined efforts in combination with increased service and transit amenities provided by the SSTC will improve economic, education, residential and business opportunities for the Southside and Tallahassee at large.

What should we expect?

StarMetro and the consultant will conduct significant community outreach and engagement with the adjoining, affected and serving communities before, during and after the project. Community engagements will seek input on route and facility needs as well as the look and design of the facility itself.

Based on success Phase 1 and Phase 2 community outreach, a facility and service needs assessment and certain land use regulations, this 30%-60% design rendering is the programmatic footprint for the building and the site. This allows consultants to begin permitting and working on more detailed site and internal/external building elements.

Southside Transit Center's Phase 3, running March through June 2023, will include more community meetings on the functional design and operations as well as amenities. This will coincide with updating and finalizing the 60% design.

StarMetro's Southside Transit Center will be the first public transit center built in our community since C.K. Steele Plaza in the 1980s. Today, land regulation, urban planning, transit development and local, state, and federal building and permitting requirements are much more advanced.

This creates a robust process where the many stages and levels of due diligence and compliance required to build a project of this nature gives all stakeholders, especially community members, an opportunity to evaluate decisions and provide input at many steps along the way to breaking ground.

Building a new transit center from the ground up will be a multi-year coordinated effort led by StarMetro/City of Tallahassee and under the purview of the Florida Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration.

The community engagement and design portion of this project, broken into four phases, is part of the exciting, multi-faceted process of creating more equitable transportation options for the southside of Tallahassee.

Join us in helping shape the future of transportation in Tallahassee and the opportunities a transit center can provide for the Southside.

• Community Engagement Approach
• Route Redesign Study

StarMetro is in Phase 3 of the Southside Transit Center Community Engagement plan. During Phase 3, StarMetro is sharing the 30-60 percent conceptual design with community members to explain current planning and design decisions and to solicit feedback, ideas and requests. Phase 3 will include more in-person and virtual opportunities for residents to engage in the process. Please check the calendar below or follow us on social media for event information. If you are interested in scheduling a Southside Transit Center discussion at your next neighborhood/organization meeting or would like a Southside Transit Center information table at your community event, please email Allie Fleming.