Star Tribune Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:37:43 GMT
Vibrant urban villages? Plans don't fit reality
As the housing slowdown dashes plans across the metro to create "livable" core communities, the Met Council is accommodating some adjusted goals. Stitched together by developers from fields and gravel pits, Apple Valley has worked for years to build the kind of downtown where residents can leave home in the morning and walk to the bus, their jobs or local stores. New restaurants and a hotel, townhouses and a park with water fountains where kids can play have already sprung up in the Central Village, but right next door, there are still empty fields. The housing market slump caused a slowdown in development that forced city leaders to plead earlier this summer to hang onto public funding that is key to their vision: a $2.3 million Livable Communities grant from the Metropolitan Council to build underground parking below an as-yet-unbuilt complex of housing and businesses on Galaxie Avenue. In the last year, Met Council officials have fielded an unprecedented number of requests from city leaders who already have Livable Communities grant money in hand, but say they need to change plans to make their community's project. And for the first time in the program's history, a shortage of deserving proposals led the Met Council to hold back about $3 million last year in money available through the program, which helps metro-area cities create thriving urban villages by cleaning up contaminated property and building affordable housing near businesses and public transit.
[[keywords: LandUse;Metro;]]
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