PlanIt

Youth play a crucial role in envisioning and realizing our future communities, but are often left out of the planning process. In this month’s episode we speak with Darcie Vandegrift, a Principal Researcher at the Metropolitan Council, about her research on the relationship between youth and parks. This research aimed to better understand youth experiences in parks by focusing on motivations for participation, barriers to access, and desired activities and amenities. Listen to the episode to learn more about the research process, their findings, and how this information is being used.

Gentrification has impacted many people living in cities as under-invested neighborhoods have been transformed into higher wealth areas. As the cost of living increases, gentrification often leads to the displacement of longtime residents who can no longer afford to live in these areas. Local jurisdictions can take steps to monitor these changes and implement policies and processes that minimize negative impacts to residents. In this episode we talk with Ed Goetz, professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, director of Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota, and coauthor of The Diversity of Gentrification report, which looks at gentrification in Minneapolis and St. Paul over 15 years and provides recommended policy approaches to shift narratives.

Planning decisions and policies can have devastating consequences on the social environment and disproportionately impact communities of color. An example in recent history is the construction of I-94 through the thriving African American Rondo neighborhood in the City of St. Paul. This planning decision tore apart a community of color, leaving damages that have lasted generations. Now, almost 70 years later, the community is working with the City and other partners to repair this harm. In this episode we talk with Keith Baker, executive director of ReConnect Rondo, and Tony Johnson, senior planner at the City of St. Paul about these efforts.

Planners are always working on ideas to activate public spaces and bring more residents together. Utilizing these areas not only creates spaces where people want to be, but also is a strong economic development tool for local communities. One such recent project is Panoway in the City of Wayzata, where the City partnered with the Musicant Group to activate their lakefront space. In this episode we hear from Emily Goellner, Community Development Director at the City of Wayzata, Max Musicant, Founder and Principal of Musicant Group, and Kim Peterson, Division Manager for Community Management at the Musicant Group about this placemaking experience.

Data gathered through Census is used to inform planning processes at many levels. The new data for 2020 Census was released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2021. But what were the changes in the 2020 Census and how did they impact the results? What did we learn from those results and how do they impact our work? In this episode, Matt Schroeder, Principal Researcher at the Metropolitan Council, walks us through the whole process, changes, results, and how to challenge those results. You can access more information and resources through the U.S. Census Data and Census 2020 page of our website.

Nowadays, the effects of a changing climate are apparent in every aspect of our lives. The uncertainties created by climate change make long-term planning for future investments difficult. As such, ongoing efforts are trying to find a way to better understand the impact of these uncertainties. Staff at the Metropolitan Council, in partnership with academic institutions, have worked to put together a tool to assist local communities with envisioning possible alternative futures based on data on greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, we expand on this topic in our conversation with Mauricio Leon, senior researcher at the Metropolitan Council and Kaitlin Osterman, student at Macalester College.

The Metropolitan Council's Solar for Vouchers Program provides technical assistance to help multifamily rental property owners install solar panels and reduce their energy costs. Property owners can take advantage of these savings in exchange for a commitment to rent some of their units at market rates to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program participants. In this episode, Cameran Bailey and Baris Gumus-Dawes talk about the background information, details, and benefits of this program.

All communities have to deal with parking requirements. These requirements can at times impose tremendous limitations on developments. Considering the wide impact that parking requirements can have on future of development, many communities have undertaken efforts to reform them. Additionally, with changes in parking demand and driving habits, as well as innovative practices, many communities have started to incorporate new parking management ideas in their code. In this episode, we expand on this topic in our conversation with Sean Walther and Jennifer Monson from the City of St. Louis Park, and Lance Bernard from HKGi.

When the COVID-19 pandemic confined us to our homes, people found refuge and community in the region's parks, trails, and open spaces. The significant increase in park users challenged planners to find creative solutions to expand the capacity of these spaces to allow for safe, socially-distanced recreation and to engage users around the new future of parks. In this episode, we hear from Lil Leatham from Dakota County, and Adam Arvidson and Daniel Elias from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board about the impact of COVID-19 on parks, how they addressed these challenges and opportunities, and how they plan to use what they have learned moving forward.

More and more communities have been considering health in their long-range planning and policy discussions. Many have incorporated health in their 2040 comprehensive plans. Staff from the Public Health Law Center, Minnesota Department of Health, and the Metropolitan Council worked on a collaborative project to review over 50 local comprehensive plans and analyze how communities have included public health goals in these plans. The purpose of the project is to use this information to provide technical assistance to other communities and implementation strategies. This episode explores the methodology and findings of this research.

The Metropolitan Council has partnered with the Resilient Communities Project (RCP) to provide support for communities implementing their 2040 comprehensive plans. One of the projects that RCP and the students worked on in the 2020-21 academic year was "Enhancing Woodbury's Urban Tree Canopy." Through this effort, RCP assisted the City of Woodbury with their Tree Canopy plan engagement process and created an engagement toolkit that can be used by any other community. This episode explores the process and results of this project.

The Metropolitan Council Research team has put together a dataset to provide equity-relevant characteristics for all census tracts in the Twin Cities Region. You may have heard of and worked with Areas of Concentrated Poverty (ACP). The new Equity Considerations dataset replaces ACPs to provide nuanced information in conjunction with community engagement efforts and additional local knowledge (as described in the User Guide). In this episode, Krysten Ryba-Tures and Matt Schroeder from the Council’s Research team explain this dataset and its applications for local planning.

In 2020 we experienced an unprecedented pandemic ; we witnessed businesses, schools, and offices close; many of us started working from home; we adopted rigorous health and safety guidelines; and we didn't visit our families and friends. Our Cities suffered similarly, with tax loss, lack of funding, and extenuating circumstances to respond to the communities' needs. Many of them have come out stronger with lessons to take into the future. In this episode, we hear from Todd Graham at the Metropolitan Council about the big picture economic impact of the pandemic, and we talk with Meg Beekman from the City of Brooklyn Center and Anne Kane from the City of White Bear Lake about the measures they have implemented in their communities.

Many communities have started to consider to address equity policies in their long-range plans, as well as implementation actions. However, resources about how to start these conversations, identify actionable policies, and continue the effort at the local level are hard to come by. In this episode, we explore these points with two cities in the Twin Cities region that been working on this topic. We are joined by Alicia Sojourner, Meg McMonigal, and Sean Walther from the City of St. Louis Park, and Kiarra Zackery and Jason Zimmerman from the City of Golden Valley.

Planners regularly work and interact with architects as part of development proposals, variances, and approvals. However, planners are less aware of how architects arrive at the design concept they bring to the table. What considerations matter more in the process, and how can planners make the most of this partnership? In this episode, Elizabeth Turner from Precipitate Architecture and Sustainable Design consulting firm, helps us navigate how planning policies and zoning codes impact development projects and how such impacts can be reduced to foster better design.

You may have heard the term 'energy policy,' but what does that really mean? What are the energy trends that we see in our communities, and what resources are available to create and implement energy policies? The Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) is a non-profit organization that helps communities create and implement energy policies. In this episode, we hear from Katie Jones, Community Program and Policy Manager at CEE, about the energy policy technical assistance they provide to local communities.

How are highways and highway improvements planned? What agencies are involved in ensuring that the region’s transportation system is operating smoothly? What is the process from envisioning a highway project to implementing that change? These are some of the questions that we explored in this episode. Listen to our conversation with transportation professionals from Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Melissa Barnes, Molly McCartney, and Brad Utecht.

What happens at the United Nations Climate Conference every year, and why do these international negotiations matter for Minnesota? What can Minnesotans contribute to and learn from this international conference? We asked these and other questions to Climate Generation’s Sarah Goodspeed and the Metropolitan Council’s Eric Wojchik about their December 2019 attendance at the COP25 in Madrid, Spain.

Following Episode 26 of our podcast about planning in Scotland, we continued exploring planning topics in another part of the world. In this episode we had a conversation about economic development and private investments in Nairobi, Kenya; specifically the Village Market development complex. Hamed Ehsani, Managing Director of Green Hills Investments talked about the process, opportunities, and challenges of developments in Kenya.

As the population of the Twin Cities metro area grows, the economy has become more prosperous. However, the impacts and positive outcomes of the growth in the economy are not distributed equitably in the region. Some geographic areas or populations have been excluded from the prospects of a strong economy. In this episode, Tawanna Black, from the Center for Economic Inclusion talks about the role of planning and local governments in advancing equity in economic growth.