TAMPA The city of Tampa received a $1.2 million federal grant today to develop plans to combine transportation, housing and downtown cultural amenities in the area of the transportation center station scheduled to be built by 2015.

Plans will be written to enable private sector investors to overcome potential red tape hurdles in projects near the proposed joint high-speed rail, light rail and bus hub at the former Morgan Street jail site.

"This grant will make sure that jobs are co-located with housing and transportation," said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio hailed the advent of high-speed rail, light rail and the downtown transportation center as a step matching the vision and impact from building the modern Tampa International Airport in 1971.

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