Audio What's the plan? (story audio) Photos Plans for the New Brighton City Center The New Brighton development contains affordable housing, a long-term care center, retail shops and other services Jim Erkel with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy Resources Met Council home page Met Council -- information on Smart Growth Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

What's the plan?
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
December 17, 2002

The New Brighton City Center is one example of "smart growth" advocated by the Met Council, which encourages redeveloping rundown areas in existing cities and suburbs. (Photo courtesy of the Met Council)

Metropolitan Council members may vote Wednesday on a plan to manage Twin Cities growth. Or they might not. After Republican victories in November, the Met Council is being advised to do nothing until Gov.-elect Pawlenty selects new Met Council leadership.

St. Paul, Minn. — At stake is a sweeping plan in the making for years. It's called Blueprint 2030. The plan assumes the region will grow by one million people in the next three decades. To accommodate the growth, the plan encourages redeveloping rundown areas in existing cities and suburbs.

To handle growth beyond the suburbs, the plan favors so-called growth centers. These are fast-growing towns such as Elko and New Market near Interstate 35 in Dakota County. They would win sewer and other urban services ahead of neighboring communities in an attempt to concentrate growth.

In addition, the blueprint would expand protection of farmland and natural areas. And it proposes a mix of road building and transit to help people get around. However, Blueprint 2030 appears destined to be delayed until the administration of Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty selects a new chair and members of the Met Council.

	The New Brighton development contains affordable housing, a long-term care center, retail shops and other services

Met Council member Mary Smith, a Republican from Wayzata, said her 16 colleagues, most of them Democrats led by chairman Ted Mondale, also a DFLer, should hold off on a vote.

"I'm afraid if we don't give the next council at least at least an opportunity to buy in to what is there they won't take the ownership that we want them to," Smith said.

Homebuilders, city officials, environmentalists and others have been peppering council members with advice on whether to delay or go ahead with a vote.

Met Council member Tom Egan, a Republican, whose district includes the city of Eagan, says those who want to adopt the blueprint in a bid to get the strategies in place are missing a key political point.

"What I think those people fail to recognize is that the new administration can do as it pleases with anything that this particular council does," said Egan. "They can certainly rescind what we enact, they don't have to implement what we adopt. And there are a number of reasons why I just think a smooth and orderly transition is a better course of action rather than rushing to judgment."

Fueling the debate over Blueprint 2030 is an unprecedented level of Twin Cities growth.

	Jim Erkel with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

Constituents in dozens of suburban cities are pressing city councils to rein in new home construction. The residents are alarmed at shrinking open space, rising road congestion and higher taxes as newcomers demand more muncipal services.

Rick Packer, a former Met Council member, works for Arcon, a Twin Cities developer. He said many cities have capped the number of home building permits they're issuing. He describes a suburban land rush scene a few weeks ago in Maple Grove.

"We put on the market our last 10 building permits in a neighborhood where homes start around $325,000. We saw people waiting in line in their cars overnight, with the television plugged into their lighters waiting to get their crack at those last 10 building permits," Packer said.

The state's budget crisis may play a role in Twin Cities growth patterns. Jim Erkel with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy said regardless of the fate of Blueprint 2030, sprawl might be slowed if subsidies for sewer and road building are ended. Erkel and others argue the taxes and fees paid by people in existing cities subsidize sewer and road building at the fringe.

"If the Pawlenty administration and the new council did nothing but simply take away those subsidies and let the market truly work, you would get more development coming down the road that would be more compact, more mixed use development -- because that's what people want and that's what builders would build if they could," Erkel said.

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