Why is this goal important?
Between 2000 and 2030, the seven-county metropolitan area is expected to grow by 966,000 people and 471,000 jobs. Growth is a good thing. It means new jobs, rising incomes, added tax revenue, higher property values and new economic opportunities.

But it also presents challenges. How do we accommodate growth while maintaining the quality of life for the 2.8 million people who already live and work here? How do we preserve and revitalize the communities and neighborhoods we prize while building new communities with their own character and sense of place? How do we capitalize on our opportunities for economic development while preserving our vital natural assets and abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation?

The Council is committed to working collaboratively with local communities to accommodate our region’s growth in a sensible, flexible and cost-effective manner, recognizing that “one size does not fit all.”
 

What is the Council doing to achieve this goal?
The Council has adopted a new 2030 Regional Development Framework with a set of policies and strategies tailored for fully developed communities, communities that are still developing, rural growth centers and the remaining rural areas.

The Framework anticipates that about 30 percent of the region’s growth can be accommodated in developed communities, where sewers, roads and other costly infrastructure already are in place. This requires continued efforts by the Council and local communities to help clean up contaminated lands and facilitate their redevelopment.

The Framework also provides for a 20-year, rolling supply of land with urban services to meet future needs in developing communities, where more than 60 percent of the region’s growth is likely to occur.

Finally, the Framework forecasts the region’s population growth, employment and housing needs by community – to assist local officials in their planning.

How is the Council's progress on this goal?
The region dropped sharply below our housing production target of 18,000 units per year in 2006 as a result of the slow-down in the housing market, which had been quite robust earlier in the decade.  Housing production is largely the result of market forces and tax policy rather than anything the Council might do.

But the Council can help influence housing location and costs by ensuring an adequate supply of developable land with urban services. In 2005, the Council finished updating its system plans for transportation, regional parks, and wastewater collection and treatment to do just that. Metro area communities now have until the end of 2008 to adopt or update local comprehensive plans that are consistent with the Council's regional system plans.

In addition, through its three Livable Communities grant programs, the Council can help clean up contaminated land for redevelopment, expand the supply of affordable housing and promote development that links housing, jobs and services. These programs together provide more than $14 million a year in grants to local communities.

Why is this goal important?
The region has made an enormous investment in its regional systems. Efficient use of these systems is essential to keeping costs in check, and enhancing this metropolitan area as a place to live, work and grow jobs.

The Council owns and maintains 600 miles of regional sewers and eight regional plants that collect and treat up to 300 million gallons of wastewater per day from 104 communities. It operates a transit system that includes the region’s first light rail line and a fleet of 821 buses, which provide 30 million miles of service per year on 113 local, express and contract routes.

Working with 10 implementing agencies, the Council helps to maintain and improve a regional park system with 49 parks, six special recreation features and 28 regional trails. It also administers programs intended to help expand the supply of affordable housing.

What is the Council doing to achieve this goal?
The Council has worked hard to improve the efficiency of its wastewater treatment system, making use of new business practices, management information systems and treatment technologies that have reduced chemical, energy and labor costs.

Metro Transit, meanwhile, has undertaken a comprehensive, multi-year, sector-by-sector restructuring of service throughout the region. The goal is to optimize the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of the system. Metro Transit also has invested in new technology to improve service design, operations management and fare collections – again, with the goal of improving productivity.

How is the Council's progress on this goal?
In 2006, for the fourth consecutive year, the Council kept the lid on property taxes paid by the average homeowner for regional services. To achieve this goal, the Council tightened its budget, achieved reforms in health care benefits and refinanced bonds to take advantage of low interest rates. The Council also continues to operate one of the nation’s most efficient wastewater collection and treatment systems. In 2006, municipalities served by the system paid wholesale charges totaling about $141.7 million, approximately the same as their total charges a decade ago. If the charges collected in 1997 had kept pace with inflation, they would have climbed to $175.7 million this year.

Why is this goal important?
To a growing number of metro area residents, traffic congestion ranks as the No. 1 livability issue. It affects the length of their daily commute, the times of day they choose to make trips, the amount of time they sit in traffic, even where they choose to live and work.

According to the latest report from the Texas Transportation Institute, the average Twin Cities commuter spends 43 hours per year stuck in traffic at an average cost of $722 per commuter. The price tag is far greater for businesses trying to get their products to market.

What is the Council doing to achieve this goal?
The enormous costs associated with building new transportation facilities mean that the region will have to make targeted investments. As the lead transportation planning agency for the region, the Council will work with MnDOT to maintain the existing 657-mile metro highway system, reducing the dozens of bottlenecks that impede travel, implementing new strategies to improve the efficiency of the system and adding capacity.

But the region also must look for new ways to make more effective use of the existing highway system. This means stretching out peak-period travel through flexible work hours, exploring so-called HOT lanes and other pricing strategies that make more efficient use of freeways, providing greater incentives for transit use, and reducing travel demand through expanded ridesharing, telecommuting and other measures.

By investing in improved transit, the region can provide more people with realistic alternatives to traveling by car. This requires expanding the existing bus system, adding more bus-only lanes on highway shoulders and park-and-ride lots, and continuing to develop a network of bus and/or transitways in heavily traveled corridors.

In 2006, the Council received federal approval to enter preliminary engineering on the region's second light-rail transit line in the Central Corridor and moved toward construction of a commuter rail line in the Northstar Corridor.

Key objectives are to increase peak-hour transit capacity – which will do the most to ease congestion – and build total transit ridership.

How is the Council's progress on this goal?
With the support of the Governor, the Council has made significant progress toward expanding and improving the region's transit system. In 2006, Governor Pawlenty secured the final $60 million in state funding needed to build the 40-mile Northstar Commuter Rail Line between Minneapolis and Big Lake, providing a new transportation alternative in that congested corridor. It could open as early as 2009.

In 2006, the Council received federal approval to begin preliminary engineering on an 11-mile light rail transit (LRT) line linking downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. The region also began work on the first phase of a 16-mile bus rapid transit (BRT) line between the Mall of America and Lakeville.

These transit improvements will build on the success of the 11.6-mile, $715-million Hiawatha light rail transit line linking downtown Minneapolis, International Airport and the Mall of America. In its first full year of operation, the line recorded 7.8 million rides, exceeding pre-construction estimates by 58 percent.

In 2006, total transit ridership in the region climbed to 81.6 million, an increase of 6 percent from 2005. In addition to Metro Transit, transit service in the region is provided by six suburban “opt-out” systems, privately contracted routes, community programs and Metro Mobility for persons with disabilities.
 

Why is this goal important?
This metropolitan area boasts a unique combination of assets – three majestic rivers, 950 lakes, rolling hills, extensive wetlands, native prairies and woodlands, aggregate and a multi-layered aquifer system – that are essential to our region’s prized quality of life and continued economic well-being.

What is the Council doing to achieve this goal?
The Council places a high priority on operating its eight regional wastewater treatment plants in full compliance with federal and state water quality standards. Its Environmental Services Division also works with about 800 major industrial clients to reduce the harmful pollutants entering the wastewater treatment system.

Working with 10 implementing agencies, the Council helps acquire, develop and maintain parks and open space as part of the 53,000-acre regional parks and open space system. As part of its new Regional Framework, the Council also is working with local communities and other partners to protect and preserve the region’s water supply.

How is the Council's progress on this goal?
The Council’s wastewater treatment system consistently achieves near-perfect compliance with state and federal water quality standards. In 2006, six of the system’s eight plants earned “Certificates of Commendation” from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for outstanding operation, maintenance and management.

In 2005, the Council's Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant put into full operation three new incinerators that reduced air emissions of many pollutants – including particulates, carbon monoxide, mercury and lead – by more than 95 percent. All eight of the Council's treatment plants also have reduced their total discharge of phosphorus by 49  percent since 2003.

The Council is currently (as of May 2007) considering or has approved about $1.4 million in acquisition grants to acquire 82 acres. They include 20 acres on the shore of the Crow River as part of Lake Rebecca Park Reserve in western Hennepin County and 61 acres for a new regional park on the shores of Cedar Lake in southern Scott County.

In 2005, Metro Transit began using ultra low-sulfur fuel for all of its buses. This is a specially refined diesel fuel that has dramatically lowered sulfur content -- 15 to 30 parts per million of sulfur compared with 500 parts per million for the fuel that was being burned previously. In 2006, Metro Transit began using ultra low-sulfur fuel with a 5-percent biodiesel blend, reducing transit's dependence on foreign oil. In 2007, Metro Transit plans to move to a 10-percent biodiesel blend. In addition, the Council plans to add 150 hybrid electric buses to the Metro Transit fleet over the next five years.