Rapid urbanization, increasing dependence on private vehicles, and the resulting negative consequences have highlighted the necessity of reconsidering conventional urban development patterns and moving toward sustainable planning approaches. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), as one of the contemporary approaches in urban planning, aims to establish integration between land use, public transportation, and urban design by emphasizing principles such as appropriate density, land-use diversity, walkability, street connectivity, and reduced dependence on private automobiles. This study aims to evaluate the level of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) realization in District 1 of Ardabil Municipality and to examine the role of urban management in achieving this development approach. The research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of methodology. The study employs documentary studies, spatial data analysis, spatial assessments, and multi-criteria decision-making techniques. Eight main components, including cycling, walkability, connectivity, land-use mix, density, compactness, modal shift, and urban management, were selected as the evaluation criteria. To assess the role of urban management, a questionnaire survey and the One-Sample T-Test were applied, while the Analytic Network Process (ANP) was used to determine the relative importance of the evaluation criteria. The findings indicate that District 1 of Ardabil Municipality possesses potentials such as concentration of urban activities, relative land-use diversity, and an appropriate spatial structure for moving toward TOD. However, the existing conditions still fall short of the desirable level in terms of several physical-spatial indicators. The results of urban management analysis demonstrate that this factor has a significant impact on TOD realization and was identified as the most important criterion in the ANP model. Accordingly, achieving Transit-Oriented Development in the study area requires an integrated urban management approach, improvement of pedestrian and cycling networks, strengthening the relationship between land use and public transportation, and modifying existing spatial patterns.