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subregional, and regional levels. They also agree that individual cities, the subregion, and the region, would be best served by long-range, collaborative actions that create a subregion of livable communities linked to and supportive of a multi-modal transportation network. Although frequently grouped together as first- and second-ring suburbs, there is considerable diversity found between and within each Coalition community. For example, experience in operating as a city ranges from 108 to 40 years and each city has an individual set of civic traditions. Difference in development patterns can also be found: New Brighton has areas in the second or third generation of redevelopment, while Blaine has agricultural land outside the MUSA; Mounds View is largely residential, while Roseville has a balanced economic base; Shoreview and Arden Hills have linear shapes, while Circle Pines is compact. But when it comes to making their communities more livable, Coalition cities share common issues and challenges that cross city boundaries and cannot be effectively addressed by isolated city actions. These issues and challenges might best be framed in response to the program objectives of the Livable Community Demonstration Account. 1. Interrelate development or redevelopment with transit. Coalition cities are currently under-served by public transit services. Due partially to the auto- oriented, low-density development of the 1950s to 1970s, single-use zoning practices, and a discormected arterial network, it has been difficult to provide cost-efficient transit service to job and economic centers in the subregion. This circumstance suggests that individual site improvements using transit-oriented design principles alone are not enough to ensure that the bus or LRT will come. It will take intetjurisdictional planning and phased implementation to build a viable transit system to serve transit-oriented development sites. For example, Silver Lake Road has potential to redevelop as a series of small- to medium-scale, transit-oriented developments with connections to east-west routes. 2. Intensify land use through appropriate density and mixing of uses... Suburban areas most appropriate for intensified land use are often located at the borders of cities or at the junction of major and minor arterials. To effectively intensify redevelopment and development areas to the levels supportive of transit, cities will need to develop intetjurisdictional strategies supported by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Council, and the counties. The commercial/office area that straddles the Lexington Avenue border between Arden Hills and Shoreview at 694 provides a good example. Prime for redevelopment because of aging structures and corporate restructuring, this area could become anintensive, mixed-use activity center if infrastructure and transit systems were designed and developed to support a transit-oriented development. 3. Connect housing and areas of employment growth. Suburban communities developed after 1945 are highly dependent upon access to regional systems to provide residents with the full complement of jobs, goods, and services normally found in a free standing community. This assumed accessibility aUows cities to take single land use zoning to its next level: the bedroom community, large-scale employment centers, and uneven economic development. Recognizing this fundamental interdependency among metropolitan cities, the Coalition approaches this smart growth challenge as a matter of filling 7