Houston Metro: Property Owner

I'm not sure what i think of this move by Metro to buy a developer's land then sell back when they are ready. I'm guessing this is to give the developer time to come up with a TOD plan without incurring the costs of holding land year to year. Perhaps the city should have come up with a way to do this without having Metro purchase the land and make it available for all properties that are going to develop TOD. In that sense they would be able to provide more density and community benefits with the money they saved. Heck perhaps this is a way to fund new light rail lines? Buy the land along a corridor and sell it back to pay for the infrastructure. It could work right? It would be a LIF. Land Increment Financing.