The goal of the Tempe Streetcar Urban Design Guidelines is to develop a set of design parameters for the designers who will be involved later during the design process. This is not a document that replaces other City of Tempe or METRO design guidelines, but rather assembles into one place some of the overarching aspirations of the community, the City of Tempe and METRO.

An Urban Design Team made up of local designers, national transit designers, and agency representatives, was assembled to develop a document that would guide the system design. In addition, a team of climatologists from Arizona State University researched the special performance needs of materials and cooling systems in our climate, providing input into the guidelines for shading and cooling devices, as well as a separate technical report. The Team worked to isolate the twenty elements of urban design most critical to the creation of a light rail system specific to this region and then developed guidelines for each one of those elements.