Equitable Development along Regional Transitways

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability612-332-4471russ@metrostability.orgwww.metrostability.org

Communities will be grappling with how to optimize the benefits of transitway corridor development for the next 10 – 20 years

Who Decides & Who Benefits from these publicly subsidized projects?

CASE STUDY #1: AFFORDABLE HOUSING ALONG OUR FIRST LIGHT RAIL LINE: THE HIAWATHA CORRIDOR

IN MINNEAPOLIS

Planning for Development along the Hiawatha LRT

Images from LCC power pt.

Images from LCC power pt.

38th Street Station – Community Planning Meetings

Longfellow Community Council’s Purina Mills Community Benefits Agreement, 2008

• Affordable Housing: 196 rental units 20% of the total rental units are at/below 50% of mmi [40 units] 17% of the total rental units will be at/below 60% of mmi [34 units] 63% of the total units will have market rate rents [122 units]

• Transit Oriented Development Principles

• Environmental Commitments

• Embracing Community

• Economic Development& Employment

• Design & Place-making

• LCC Support Obligations

KEY QUESTION FOR THE TWIN CITIES:

How can Transitway planning, station area designs, and related development be done in a way that is INCLUSIVE OF & EQUITABLE TOWARDS everyone, including members of nearby Environmental Justice communities?

What is Environmental Justice?There are 3 fundamental environmental justice principles:

1. To avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations.

2. To ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process.

3. To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.

[ from FHWA FTA Environmental Justice http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2000.htm ]

Environmental Justice Communities Exist, and we must prevent “disproportionate impacts” to them, including social & economic effects.

Who Decides? Community Engagement process must include affected communities

Who Benefits? The managing agency must protect the rights of minority and low-income communities to equally benefit from the project.

Title VI – Civil Rights Act

"No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

- Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Retrieved from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm

Environmental Justice

"Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.“ – Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in

Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, 1994

“Safety and mobility are two of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT's) top priorities. Achieving environmental

justice is another undeniable mission of the agency.”Retrieved from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm

HOW DOES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION DECISION MAKING?

• Make better transportation decisions that meet the needs of all people. • Design transportation facilities that fit more harmoniously into communities. • Enhance the public-involvement process, strengthen community-based partnerships, and provide minority and low-income populations with opportunities to learn about and improve the quality and usefulness of transportation in their lives. • Improve data collection, monitoring, and analysis tools that assess the needs of, and analyze the potential impacts on minority and low-income

populations.• Partner with other public and private programs to leverage transportation-agency resources to achieve a common vision for communities. • Avoid disproportionately high and adverse impacts on minority and low-income populations. • Minimize and/ or mitigate unavoidable impacts by identifying concerns early in the planning phase and providing offsetting initiatives and enhancement measures to benefit affected communities and neighborhoods.

Environmental justice is more than a set of legal and regulatory obligations. Properly implemented, environmental justice principles and procedures improve all levels of transportation decision making.

This approach will:

CASE STUDY #2: CENTRAL CORRIDOR LRT

University Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota

Central Corridor LRT

On the front end of this project proposal …

… community leaders wondered: “Is this an Opportunity or a Threat?”

Community Summit Vision

To be successful, the light rail line must not only improve mobility, but must also serve as a catalyst to strengthen and enhance existing and future neighborhoods, workforces and businesses along the line. - Saint Paul & Minneapolis Community Summit, March, 2009

Planners can start by asking the right questions

HISTORY MATTERS

Equitable Community Engagement:

Bring people and community groups in early for authentic participation in the transitway planning & decision making process.

Coalition Partners included:• Alliance for Metropolitan

Stability• Aurora/St. Anthony

Community Development Corporation (ASANDC)

• Community Stabilization Project

• District Councils Collaborative of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

• Hmong Organizing Program, TakeActionMN

• ISAIAH• Jewish Community Action• Minnesota Center for

Environmental Advocacy• Transit for Livable

Communities• Housing Preservation

Project (HPP)• University United

Maps Matter …

The Community Argued: There were distinct environmental justice populations within

the Central section that were not properly identified within the Environmental Impact Statement

City of St. Paul, Ramsey County & other public officials and their Planning Staff worked with Community Groups to resolve this issue.

Find Allies in High Places.

FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff

“Grassroots groups ranging from Asian shopkeepers to disabled residents clamored for the extra stops, and found a friend in Rogoff. He took it up as a matter of civil rights because of the low-income and minority communities who live along the line.

… while attending a transit conference last fall in Boston. He said he was cornered by a handful of Twin Cities advocates who spotted him while he was ordering coffee. ‘Those were the people who found in me in line in Starbucks,’ he said.”

Minnesota Public Radio March 12, 2010

- Laura Yuen

http://www.metrostability.org/campaigns/article.php?sid=Stops_for_Us

“Rogoff says the Central Corridor became the poster child of why the [CEI] policy needed to be changed.

‘It was taking on a form that was going to be really silly -- silly in that the Met Council was proposing to build foundations for stations, and not the stations to serve the residents of that community,’ he said. ‘And that is really indefensible on any score.’ "

Minnesota Public Radio March 12, 2010

- Laura Yuen

New Federal Performance Measures

FTA has revised the New Starts evaluation criteria, by balancing the Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI) with other social, economic and environmental factors:

• Cost Effectiveness Index - 20%• Land Use - 20%• Economic Development - 20%• Mobility - 20%• Environmental Benefits - 10%• Operating Efficiencies - 10%

Don’t Let Them Tell You It’s Impossible

AFFORDABLE HOUSING ALONG THE CENTRAL CORRIDOR LRT

CENTRAL CORRIDOR FUNDERS COLLABORATIVE: WHO’S WORKING ON HOUSING ISSUES?

Groups we support:Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership — We helped fund this working group to develop a corridor-wide affordable housing strategy and plan.Central Corridor Transit-Oriented Design Land Acquisition Fund Taskforce — We funded them to explore ways to take advantage of pre-light rail transit land values and promote transit-oriented development.

LEARN MOREImpacts of the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Line on property values (U of M research)Who will get to live near the Central Corridor Light Rail Line?

Center for Transit Oriented Development Reports:Affordable Housing in Transit Oriented DevelopmentPreserving Affordable Living and Access in Livable CommunitiesThe Mixed-Income Housing TOD Action Guide

Realizing the Potential: Expanding Housing Options Near Transit

Many groups are active in advocating for or working toward affordable housing in the Central Corridor.Jewish Community ActionMICAHISAIAHAlliance for Metropolitan StabilityCommunity Stabilization Project and Corridor Housing InitiativeMinnesota Housing Finance AgencyCity of Saint PaulCity of MinneapolisHennepin CountyCenter for Energy and the EnvironmentNeighborhood Energy Consortium

These groups offer general expertise in the area of affordable housing:Minnesota Housing PartnershipCenter for Housing Policy: The Campaign for Affordable Housing

Inclusionary Zoning policies triggered by public subsidization of development

• Land-Banking partnerships between state

and regional housing authorities

• Home Foreclosure Prevention and

Conversion Targeting

• Taking Inventory of publicly subsidized

housing and ID’ing buildings at-

risk for market conversions

• TIF for TOD

• Property Tax relief for Seniors

• Setting Workforce Development Goals

for women (6%) and people of

color (18%) in the construction of

Central Corridor LRT

• Setting Minority Contracting Goals

• Community Benefits Agreements &

Corridor Compacts

Housing Policies being considered along our Regional Transitways:

Carty Heights: This four-story Independent Living complex offers 49 affordable one-bedroom apartments for seniors. It is one of several HUD 202 projects owned and managed by Episcopal Homes of Minnesota along the Central Corridor.Rent is set at 30% of resident’s income (utilities included)

The project benefits from it’s close proximity to the Wilder Foundation’s community headquarters and easy access to a future Light Rail station.

The Wilder Center provides a variety of services and program coordination to the surrounding neighborhood, including community convenings.

Rondo Community Outreach Library at the corner of Dale and University Ave.

University Dale Apartments:There are over 92 very affordable apartments and 6 townhomes that are part of the building. There is on-site management with an office, enclosed parking, a community room for renters to use for events, and a meeting room in the apartment office.

The Frogtown/Rondo Action Network, FRAN, is made up of:

• Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation• Community Stabilization Project• Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation• Asian Economic Development Association• Jewish Community Action• Just Equity• Camphor United Method Church.• Selby Area Community Development Corporation• University Avenue Business Association• University United

FRAN's goals are to direct resources toward community-based projects already under way that would otherwise be constrained by limited means and abilities. There have been 11 projects identified by the partnership. The following are four examples:

Creating Home Ownership To encourage creative home ownership for those in rental situations; lease to purchase with preparation to become good owners. Renters Housing provisions for renters and preparation to become potential homeowners.Foreclosures How to stabilize current homeowners and preparation to thrive.Creating "Green" Jobs Based on the LRT premise that more jobs will be created and improve economic situation of residents.

Frogtown Square: At street level, Frogtown Square will be home to locally-owned restaurants and retail shops. The project will include more than 20,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 50 active senior living units above. It will also include underground parking for residents and surface parking for customers.

Kings Crossing senior apartments will crown the complex, bringing much-needed affordable housing to low-income seniors in the neighborhood. Kings crossing is Episcopal Homes of Minnesota’s third HUD-202 project on University Avenue (& Dale Ave).

Rendering of Frogtown Square by Trossen Wright Plutowski Architects, PA

CASE STUDY #3: VAN WHITE STATION

SW LRT

This is about Access vs. Isolation

Harrison Neighborhood

2000 Census:• African American 39%• Asian 27%• European American 22%• Other 12%

43 percent of Harrison residents were below the poverty level in 1999.

Retrieved from City of Minneapolis Neighborhood Profiles: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/neighborhoods/harrison_population.asp#TopOfPage

HISTORY MATTERS: 1935 Planning Map

Geography of the Harrison Neighborhood

To Downtown Minneapolis

A commitment to full public participation

Bassets Creek Valley Community Benefits Meeting, 2007

Bassett Creek Valley Master PlanFor over 10 years, Harrison Neighborhood Association

and Northside residents have been planning for the redevelopment of Bassett Creek Valley to provide quality affordable housing, living wage jobs, avoid displacement, and build community assets that will directly benefit the current residents.

• Over 650 residents and otherstakeholders participated in theplanning process.

Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan

EXPECTED REDEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES:• 3,000+ housing units• 2.5 M sq ft commercial space (office and retail)• 5000 - 6000 jobs• 40 ac. new green space• After TIF repayment, future projected tax revenue of $82 - $128 M

Commuter Rail Train Storage: Opportunity or Threat?

The Interchange is proposed to be the terminus station for these commuter rail lines:

Midwest High Speed Rail Assoc.

Image Concept by HDR prepared for Hennepin County Intermodal Facility Report, Minneapolis, MN January 2009

Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan

Can we fully develop Linden Yards East if there are 14 - 18 Commuter trains parked there, storing between 80 - 100 rail cars per work day on this site?

Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan

• 2800 Jobs

• 500 New Housing

Units (some affordable)

• 1000 new residents

• Millions of dollars in

new tax base

Humphrey Institute, Opportunity Cost Study, December, 2009

Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan

What are the Environmental Impacts of having a diesel locomotive storage yard on the neighborhood? How would air quality be impacted?

Key Questions:

1. Is it feasible?

2. How much will it cost?

3. Where will the money come from?

4. How can we lock this in to the BCV Plan?

• We are a coalition of advocacy organizations that work across

issue silos for more equitable development in the Twin Cities.

• We work together to advance racial, economic and

environmental justice in the way growth and development

happens in our region.

• We support grassroots organizing campaigns that demonstrate

how the people, places and issues of the Twin Cities are

interconnected – and interdependent.

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Allied Partners and Advocacy Organizations

Regional Transitways participant groups

• 1000 Friends of Minnesota• African Development Center • Alliance for Metropolitan Stability• Council on Black Minnesotans• CURA Community Growth Options• District Councils Collaborative of Saint

Paul & Minneapolis• Family & Children’s Service• Fresh Energy• Growth & Justice• Harrison Neighborhood Association• Housing Preservation Project• ISAIAH

• Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers

• MICAH• Midtown Community Works

Partnership• Midtown Greenway Coalition• Minneapolis Urban League• MN Center for Environmental

Advocacy• Native American Community

Development Institute• Smart Growth America• Somali Action Alliance• Twin Cities Local Initiative Support

Corporation• Transit for Livable Communities

Co-convened by AMS & the Housing Preservation Project

Regional Transitways table: Equity Statement

“To ensure fair and equitable access to transit, jobs, and affordable housing for low-income communities and communities of color by

promoting an inclusive public input process and influencing future corridor alignment,

stops locations, land use plans, and development opportunities along regional

transitways.”

“It is important that the American Indian Community continue to push and develop community-centered strategies for equitable development. These strategies must focus on creating healthy, vibrant, communities of opportunity.

Equitable outcomes come about when smart, intentional strategies are put in place to ensure that low-income communities and communities of color participate in and benefit from decisions that shape their neighborhoods and regions.”

- NACDI

• Need to serve the people who are most in need

• Opportunity to provide transportation to jobs in the NW suburbs

• Long term economic development potential

• Right of way issues along Penn Ave.• Displacement of residents• Opportunity to remove blighted

problem housing• Community sustainability• Put forth alternative routes• Process is of providing information to

the community is disjointed, needs to incorporate land use projections, economic development projections, etc.

• Traffic• Eminent domain on Penn Ave.• Gentrification (Rondo Neighborhood)• Connectivity with major transportation

infrastructure• Loss of potential economic

development in North Minneapolis if the D1 Segment is selected

• Parking replacement• Parking accommodation for transit way

patrons• Park impacts• Wetland impacts• Wildlife habitat impacts• Noise impacts• Vibration impacts

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BOTTINEAU LRT: ISSUES IDENTIFIED AT RECENT PUBLIC MEETINGS

Bottineau LRT & BRT Alignments

Race & Population Density

Forming a Northside Residents Transportation Group

Goal: Organize a core working group of community members to make a commitment to attending meetings on an ongoing basis. This working group will identify the issues, concerns, and solutions for the future development of the Bottineau Transitway. This working group will also have a commitment to an authentic, transparent and accountable community process with the ultimate goal of leveraging community benefits for north Minneapolis.

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