Lawsuits take aim at voter-approved transit projects worth billions
Opponents are increasingly using legal challenges to block or delay major public transit expansions — even after voters approve them. (Getty Images)
Opponents are turning to legal challenges to try to block or delay major public transit expansions — even after voters approve them.
Recent lawsuits in Arizona, Tennessee and Texas have attempted to slow voted-passed projects.
In Nashville, Tennessee, voters passed a $3.1 billion referendum in November to raise the city sales tax half a cent and fund expanded bus service, pedestrian improvements and 54 miles of 'all-access' transit corridors. But a Tennessee court, while upholding most of the project, ruled last week that the city could not use the funds raised to purchase land for affordable housing or parks.
The ruling affects only 1% of the total revenue, the court said. But it was a signal that even well-funded, voter-backed transit efforts are vulnerable to some legal roadblocks.
After voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, last year approved an extension of a half-cent sales tax for transportation, the county GOP sued to try to invalidate the results, arguing the vote didn't meet a 60% supermajority.
In Austin, Texas, a 2024 class-action lawsuit attempted to block the city from collecting property taxes unless it excludes a tax approved by voters in 2020 to fund Project Connect — a major transit expansion. But a judge dismissed the lawsuit late last year.
No fare! Free bus rides raise questions of fairness, viability.
Public support for expanded transit is surging across the United States. In 2024 alone, voters approved 46 of 53 transit-related ballot measures, unlocking over $25 billion in new funding for transit projects and improvements, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
But despite support at the ballot box, cities often face legal, zoning and political barriers.
Nashville, in particular, is becoming a case study in both momentum and resistance to transit investment and development, according to researchers at the Urban Institute.
'There's been a sea change,' said Gabe Samuels, a research analyst in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute. 'Nashville had two failed transit referenda in the past decade. This time, it passed decisively. Voters want alternatives to sprawl and traffic.'
But transit-oriented development — the strategy of clustering housing and businesses near high-quality transit — is often hindered by outdated zoning, Samuels and colleague Yonah Freemark told Stateline.
According to an Urban Institute study, more than 90% of Nashville's residential land is zoned for single- or two-family homes, a pattern common in Southern and Midwestern cities. That zoning limits the density needed to support high transit ridership, the report said. Currently, only 13% of Nashville's housing lies within a quarter-mile, what the report calls easy walking distance, of its planned transit corridors.
'You're investing millions — sometimes billions — into transit systems,' said Freemark. 'If you're not thinking about land use and density alongside that, you're wasting the opportunity.'
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
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