HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-03-23 PACKET MISC. INFO' T - I
METROPOLITAN
C O U N C I L
Improving quality of life for all residents
Council Chair Adam Duininck on the governor's transportation funding plan
Parks plan has focus on equity and access
Goal: Increase usage of regional parks by communities of color
Council approves updated transportation policy plan
Plan puts spotlight on connections between land use and transportation
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A pump and filter system sends the water to the ball field sprinklers and to toilets in the bathroom near centerfield.
CHS Field may be the first place in Saint Paul to use rainwater for flushing toilets. The rainwater harvesting system will reduce water use at
the ballpark by 450,000 gallons each year.
Rainwater usually flows off roofs and into storm drains that go straight to the Mississippi River. But at the new Saint Paul Saints ballpark
(CHS Field), rainwater is captured from the METRO Green Line Operations and Maintenance Facility roof and collected in a 27,000 - gallon
tank beneath the ballpark plaza.
Dayton appoints Duininck as Council Chair
Metro HRA opens waiting list. From Feb. 24 to 27, the Council's
Housing and Redevelopment Authority opened its Section 8 Housing
Choice Voucher waiting list for the first time since 2007. Among all the
online applications received, Metro HRA will randomly select 2,000
applicants to place on the list. Of those, 95% will be residents who live,
work, or attend school full -time in the seven - county region. Metro HRA
expects to reduce the time people on the list have to wait for a voucher to
two to three years.
Council awards brownfield cleanup grants. In January, the Council awarded
$3.3 million total in Livable Communities grants to seven metro cities for 13
projects that will help create jobs, clean up land for redevelopment, increase
tax base, produce affordable and market -rate housing, and leverage other
investment. Grantees include Brooklyn Center, Fridley, Hastings,
Minneapolis, Saint Paul, St. Louis Park, and White Bear Lake.
Projects model connected development. In January, the Council approved
$7.5 million total in Livable Communities grants to projects in six cities
that will expand economic development, intensify and integrate land uses
around transit, promote housing affordability near job growth, and better
connect people to jobs. Grantees include Apple Valley, Carver, Hastings,
Minneapolis, Roseville, and Saint Paul.
Want more regional news? Visit metrocouncil.org for more details on all the
stories in this edition of Metro Update, plus other regional stories.
Metropolitan Council Chair. Adam Duininck.
Members: Katie Rodriguez (District 1); Lona Schreiber (2); Jennifer Munt (3);
Deb Barber (4); Steve Elkins (5); Gail Dorfman (6); Gary L. Cunningham (7);
Cara Letofsky (8); Edward Reynoso (9); Marie McCarthy (10);
Sandy Rummel (11); Harry Melander (12); Richard Kramer (13);
Jon Commers (14); Steven T Chavez (15); Wendy Wulff (16).
Regional Administrator: Patrick Born
Editor: Jeanne Landkamer
General Offices: 651- 602 -1000 1 (651- 291 -0904 TTY)
390 N. Robert St. I St. Paul, MN 55101
e -mail: public.info ®metc.state.mn.us
Web site: metrocouncil.org
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In January, Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Adam
Duininck to lead the Metropolitan Council.
Duininck is the 14th chair of the Council since its
creation by the Legislature in 1967.
Duininck, a native of Willmar, was first
appointed to the Council in 2011. He
has more than a decade of experience
in transportation policy, planning,
and construction. In his first Council
term, he chaired the Council's
Transportation Committee. In addition,
his experience includes:
• Serving as the Council's chief
liaison to the Transportation
Advisory Board.
• Being an avid bicyclist and user of
bus and rail transit.
"We are competing with metro areas
around the country and the world,"
Duininck said. "In order to attract
business investment and a high
quality workforce, our region has to
demonstrate a vision on transportation
infrastructure, housing, water supply,
and smart planning."
As Legislative Director for the International
Duininck lives in the Standish neighborhood of
Union of Operating Engineers Local 49,
Minneapolis with his wife, Jaime; son, James;
pushing for additional state transportation
daughter, Carolina; and their two dogs, Dylan
investments in 2008, and passage of a
and Cash.
Council revs up economic research
In 2015, the Council will provide local
governments with more economic information
and technical assistance. The goal is to give
communities additional insight into what drives
the region's economy and their local economy.
Communities may choose —but will not be
required —to incorporate this information into the
next updates of their local comprehensive plans
starting in 2016.
into the comprehensive planning process.
Many local government officials said that more
economic data and analysis would be useful
to them.
By providing expanded economic information
and technical assistance, the Council will support
communities to strengthen the region's ability
to compete effectively in the global economy.
Prosperity is one of five key regional outcomes the
Council identified in its long -range comprehensive
development framework, Thrive MSP 2040.
In 2014, the Council held a series of workshops
with counties and communities in the
seven - county metro area, and introduced the
concept of integrating economic competitiveness
constitutional amendment dedicating new
funding to roads and transit.
• Working five years of road and bridge
construction.
Visit metrocouncil.org for details.
Transportation
investments improve
quality of life for all
Sometimes people look at the Met
Council and wonder what we do. We
fund regional parks, we provide
housing for people with low incomes,
we run transit, and we're even in the
clean water business. What do these
things have in common?
Adam Du ■ininck They improve the quality of life for
people in the seven - county metro
FROM THE CHNR
region. In a nutshell, the Met Council
exists to look at the big picture and help communities
work together to leave the region a better place for
future generations.
That's why Governor Dayton's transportation and transit
plan is so exciting to me. Next to clean water, there is no
other issue we will work on that will touch so many lives
on a daily basis. Congestion in the metro area is costly
to everyone right now:
• Businesses pay $232 million year in extra freight
costs because of gridlocked roads.
• The average motorist in the Twin Cities pays an
extra $395 a year in vehicle repairs and spends 35
hours stuck in traffic.
• The total cost of congestion to the region's
economy is a staggering $1.2 billion a year.
The problem won't get better on its own. By the time a
child in kindergarten today turns 30, there will be another
800,000 people living in the region. However, the funding
resources available right now are hardly adequate to
maintain our current system of roads and transit. If we
don't take action now, future generations will inherit a
region with more gridlock and fewer competitive
advantages to attract new jobs and industry to the area.
Governor Dayton's plan to address this problem is bold.
He would add . a wholesale tax to gasoline sold in the
state that will generate $11 billion over the next decade
to upgrade 2,200 miles of road and 330 bridges
statewide. An additional 1 /2 -cent sales tax to be levied
in the seven - county metro area would generate another
$2.8 million for transit.
With half of the state's roads more than 50 years old and
40 % of our bridges at the 40 -year mark, we must begin
to address our statewide infrastructure needs right now.
The investment we make in transit will improve access
to buses and light rail to over a million people and put
another 500,000 metro residents within a half -hour
transit ride to work.
I know that all of us at the Met Council —as well as the
people who work for counties and communities around
the region —are proud of the work they do to improve
the quality of life for people in this region. The governor's
transportation funding plan will leave our region a better
place for the generations to follow.
Water plan embraces
integrated approach
The Council will hold a public hearing on the draft 2040
Water Resources Policy Plan on Tuesday, March 10.
The regional plan emphasizes integration of the
Council's work in water supply, surface water, and
wastewater. It includes policies and strategies to treat
wastewater from municipalities and industries to high
water - quality standards at affordable and fair rates, and
work with partners to preserve the quality and quantity
of groundwater and surface water.
Visit metrocouncil.org for more details.
In February, the Metropolitan Council
adopted the 2040 Regional Parks
Policy Plan for the seven - county metro
area. The plan reflects the Council's
vision for the region over the next 30
years, as described in Thrive MSP
2040. One key area of focus in the
plan is equitable use of parks by all
residents.
Specifically, Thrive directs the Council
to collaborate with the Metropolitan
Parks and Open Space Commission,
regional park agencies, and state
partners to:
• Expand the Regional Parks
System to conserve, maintain,
and connect natural resources
identified as being of high quality
or having regional importance,
as identified in the 2040 Regional
Parks Policy Plan.
• Provide a comprehensive
regional park and trail system
that preserves high - quality
natural resources, increases
climate resiliency, fosters healthy
outcomes, connects
communities, and enhances
quality of life in the region.
• Promote expanded multimodal
access to regional parks, regional
trails, and the transit network,
where appropriate.
• Strengthen equitable usage of
regional parks and trails by all
our region's residents, such as
across age, race, ethnicity,
income, national origin, and
ability.
The Council recognizes that the
regional parks and trails have positive
impacts on property values,
community vitality, and public health,
as well as preserving significant
natural resources. Making sure parks
are attractive to everyone is a key
Council goal. Among the strategies:
• Build awareness of and visits
to the Regional Parks System
among current non -park users
through a Council- funded
regional parks ambassador
program.
• Require a portion of each park
agency's Parks and Trails Legacy
Fund appropriations be used to
"connect people to the
outdoors," including
programming, events, staff,
and training.
• Reflect emerging recreational
patterns of use to allow and
encourage facilities such as large
open ball fields in the Regional
Parks System.
Plan stresses transportation, land use connections
Highways, transit, walkways, and biking paths provide
The new TPP also:
mobility and important connections that fuel the economy.
Provides guidance to local communities on
They are a network that is indispensable to people's lives,
development density and local infrastructure
the movement of goods, the region's quality of life, and
necessary to assure the success of certain types
economic prosperity as the region grows and changes.
of transportation investment.
In January, the Metropolitan Council adopted the 2040
Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) for the metro area. It's
the region's long -range transportation plan and sets
the stage for investing in the transportation system to
2040 —to ensure residents have the transportation choices
they need now and in the future.
"It's a robust plan that calls for investment in all modes of
transportation and thoughtful, coordinated decision making
between local units of government and the Council about
the connections between land use and transportation,"
said the Council's Transportation Committee Chair Adam
Duininck. 'The region's success depends on it."
By 2040, the metro area will grow by more than 800,000
people and 550,000 jobs. The number of residents 65
and older will nearly double what it is today. As the region
evolves, it will need a mix of transportation choices to
accommodate the new needs.
The new TPP provides a vision based on community
engagement with people who say they want more
connected communities, more transportation choices, more
investment, and a transportation system that is maintained
and managed effectively. The relationship between local
development decisions and transportation investment is a
new emphasis of the plan.
The plan includes two funding scenarios; one based on
state and federal revenues that would be requested from
current funding streams, and a second scenario based on
the availability of additional highway and transit funding.
• Highlights the regional bicycle system by identifying
key existing corridors and opportunities for connection
to regional destinations and job centers.
• Suggests best practices for local governments, and
guidance for how regional funds will be prioritized so
local governments can evaluate needs and plan for
any necessary regional infrastructure.
Visit www.metrocouncil.org for more details.
Gov. Dayton appoints three new Council members
In late February, Gov. Mark Dayton appointed three new members to the Metropolitan Council. Starting in March will be:
• Deb Barber, District 4 (most of Carver and Scott counties). Barber is founder of Canopy Medical, a medical device
consulting firm; and member, Shakopee's Economic Development Advisory Committee.
• Gail Dorfman, District 6 (Crystal, Golden Valley, New Hope, St. Louis Park, and part of Minneapolis). Dorfman is
a former Hennepin County Commissioner and serves as executive director of the nonprofit St. Stephen's Human
Services.
• Cara Letofsky, District 8 (east half of Minneapolis). Letofsky is founder and principal at Mill City Consulting;
president of the Hennepin County Museum; and a board member of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
Council Members from all other districts were reappointed.
Parks plan has new focus on equity and access