2014_0915_CCpacket - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

The Met Council transportation plan is heavy on transit,with scant regard for needed highway investments to match current travel behavior and regional growth projections, according to Faulkner. Transit,walking and biking account for 11 percent of trips in the region, compared with 84 percent by automobile, she said. "But the focus for them and their funding is all on transit, so it's not getting where the users are today," Faulkner said. "Funds derived from suburban areas are going to be shifted elsewhere. That is an overriding initiative in their policy." She noted that 73 percent of population and household growth and 59 percent of job growth are projected to occur outside the region's urban center. "Again, the dollars aren't lining up, and there's little highway investment in those areas," Faulkner said. The Met Council calls for specific design standards for transit-oriented development that Burnsville officials say usurp local zoning law. The Orange Line bus rapid transit system, set to launch on Interstate 35W in 2019,will originally have its terminus at the Burnsville Transit Station along Highway 13 and eventually have stops at Burnsville Center and a terminus in Lakeville, Faulkner said. The Met Council's expectation is for mixed-use development with an affordable-housing component, she said—even though the two Burnsville stops were originally chosen because the transit station has a large volume of parking and the shopping center is a regional draw. "They're trying to fit an urban model, or a different type of model, at the suburban transit locations that may not be ideal," Faulkner said. The Met Council wants transit-oriented development to have "inclusionary"housing—dedicated affordable units within market-rate developments. The transit-oriented development guidelines make no accommodation for whether there's already a supply of affordable housing in the area, according to Faulkner. Met Council-controlled transit-oriented development funding would be tied to satisfactory provision of affordable housing. "Cabrini-Green lives," Sherry said, referring to the infamous former public housing project in Chicago. "Do we get credit for all the affordable apartments we offer already?" Council Member Dan Kealey asked. The Met Council housing plan does provide credits for existing supply, but the transit-oriented development requirements remain, Faulkner said. The housing plan would establish"housing performance scores." "We have a regional shopping center, which equates to lower-wage jobs in the mind of the Met Council, which means we're going to need more affordable housing units,"Faulkner said. But the housing plan has yet to include benchmarks cities will be expected to meet, she said.