The Twin Cities tied with one other metropolitan region this month in being awarded the top federal grant amount-- $5 million--for sustainable transit and transit-oriented development.
Salt Lake City was the other city to get a full $5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (Seattle came close, with $4,999,700.)
The Twin Cities' take will go toward involving local communities in planning transit-related development along five planned and existing routes: Southwest light-rail transit, Bottineau Boulevard, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, Northstar Commuter Rail and the Gateway Corridor along I-94 East.
"It's a terrific boost," says Jonathan Sage-Martinson,
Central Corridor Funders' Collaborative. The Central Corridor route between the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where the region's second light-rail transit line is now under construction, will also see some of the HUD funds.
The kind of comprehensive community planning and design that's been done on the Central Corridor will serve as a model for other transit corridors. Sage-Martinson says Shelley Poticha, director of HUD's Office of
Sustainable Housing and Communities, often cites Minneapolis-St. Paul as a prime example of a region that has found a way to work cooperatively on both transit and transit-related development. The office distributed nearly $100 million toward like efforts across the country.
The goal is to wrap together economic and workforce initiatives; alternative energy systems; energy efficiencies in housing (particularly rental housing); and green infrastructure such as the stormwater runoff system that will water new trees along the Central Corridor.
Source: Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Central Corridor Funders' Collaborative
Writer: Chris Steller