Agenda - Planning Commission - 03/06/2014

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• Strategically invest Council resources to assist community efforts to increase the variety of housing types and costs, attract and retain residents, appropriately mix land uses, increase transportation choices, and leverage private investment. • Encourage sustainability in housing, whether new construction or rehabilitation, to promote livability and health, create longer lasting and more durable housing, and benefit the regional environment. • Promote the preservation of existing housing, especially affordable housing, to maintain the most affordable housing stock. • Convene regional and local housing stakeholders, including practitioners, funders, and advocates, to refine policies and develop programs to respond to the housing needs of low- and moderate- income households throughout the region. Community Role • Prepare a local comprehensive plan that addresses the affordable housing planning requirements of the Metropolitan Land Planning Act, including guiding sufficient land to support a community's share of the regional affordable housing need and an implementation section that identifies the programs, fiscal devices, and official controls to be employed to address a community's share of the regional need for affordable housing. • Review local ordinances, policies, and partnerships to ensure they encourage and facilitate the opportunity for the development or preservation of affordable and lifecycle housing. • Identify and analyze local markets, location, condition and availability of affordable units, both publicly -subsidized and naturally -occurring, to inform the local Housing Action Plan as part of the local comprehensive plan. • Participate in the Livable Communities Act (LCA) Programs by negotiating affordable and lifecycle housing goals that support regional and local housing needs, and prepare a Housing Action Plan to address those goals and become eligible to access grant funding to address local development and redevelopment objectives. • Unsewered rural places should not attract or promote new affordable housing development. Housing rehabilitation and preservation efforts in these places should be supported by the county -level housing and community development entities. Access, Mobility, and Transportation Choice Sustain and improve a multi -modal transportation system to support regional growth, maintain regional economic competitiveness, and provide choices and reliability for the system's users. Transportation is pivotal to the region's economy and quality of life. Thrive MSP 2040 recognizes that a competitive economy, and the economic and social well-being of the region's residents, requires a multi -modal transportation system that provides choice and reliability. The Metropolitan Council has a leadership role with regard to investments and services that enhance the mobility of people and freight, improve multi -modal access to regional destinations, and support reuse, infill, and redevelopment efforts. Concern about climate change is also pushing the region to address how we might reduce carbon emissions from transportation. DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT Last revised: February 21, 2014 74