The meeting began with a presentation from Paul Angelone, Senior Director of the Curtis Infrastructure Initiative about the recent ULI Member Global Infrastructure Survey which identifies member perceptions of the quality and priorities for new infrastructure investment. It also identifies real estate trends that members expect will influence infrastructure investment over the next 5-years and their views of what the term “infrastructure” means to them. This led to a discussion about what would be useful for cohort members as a follow-up activity by the Initiative to ensure better infrastructure investment outcomes by ULI members and others.

A broad comment was that a vision needs to be established or demonstrated upfront then recommendations should flow from this goal. This would help to frame the future desires identified by ULI members, including what’s at the forefront of their minds, and then enable solutions to solve problems achieving this vision. This could include the top identified priorities around increasing housing affordability, addressing climate change, increasing renewable energy, maintenance of existing infrastructure, and improving public transportation but as identified by ULI members infrastructure is a broad topic and provides a structure to our environment. This includes the physical world or built environment like bricks, concrete, and steel, the natural environment like parks and open space, and finally, the emerging digital environment shown to be so important during the global pandemic. This would also help to align to other areas such as what’s happening with the potential infusion of new U.S. infrastructure investment as well as show why infrastructure is such an important topic.

The other broad comment was that any follow-up by the Initiative should be focused on how the diverse ULI membership could use what’s produced and how it could be used by the broader public as community-driven planning becomes more important. Some buckets identified, with a key questioned asked, includes the following.

• The Developer: How do discussions around more social infrastructure enable the confidence to have a return on their investment?
• The Consultant: What should the focus be and what are the design needs since there are limited resources?
• The Public Sector: Where are the process gaps and how to create an investment environment that enables private investment and meets social infrastructure goals?
• The Community: What is the decision-making process and how will this provide benefits?

Next steps will include the Curtis Infrastructure Initiative developing a white paper on this very topic and will use this input to frame the discussion. Then, the Initiative, plans on developing a toolkit for restorative and equitable infrastructure investment following this white paper.

The cohort provided quick updates on the status of each of the six projects. The following is listed in order of presentation.

• ULI Louisiana: The technical assistance panel for creating more equitable broadband deployment and access along the Plank Road Corridor in Baton Rouge has been scheduled for the end of September. This will build on a May symposium focused on this topic that was hosted statewide. The Parish is working on creating an overlay for the areas that would reduce parking requirements and change design standards in preparation of the new Bus Rapid Transit line.
• ULI Dallas-Fort Worth: The city is working through many of the design requirements and changes required to move forward with the redevelopment of the housing complex within the Stop Six neighborhood in Fort Worth. The city allocated $2.9 million to fund the key infrastructure recommendations made by ULI in February.
• ULI Toronto: The working group has been exploring lessons learned from Montreal in how to leverage transportation investment to create holistic neighborhoods which includes the need for housing affordability since it’s estimated a lack of this available housing costs the region between $5-6 billion annually. This will feed into several upcoming workshops within the Greater Toronto region to improve outcomes as historic levels of regional investment in public transportation occurs within the region.
• ULI San Antonio: Following a virtual and in-person process for seeking engagement on the development of criteria for identifying locations for a network of mobility hubs, the team is developing a written report on the findings. This will help the city, region, and other partners move towards the next step of using this criterion to be incorporated into regional and citywide plans to enhance regional mobility, increase ridership on public transportation, and better meet regional climate goals.
• ULI Cincinnati: The District Council has conducted multiple learning sessions to improve the implementation of the proposed 34-mile CROWN urban loop trail. This has included sessions on trail-design, the need to create and preserve housing affordability, how to fund and finance the development, and other topics. The District Council is looking to make the case on why affordable housing is important for real estate developers as they move towards identifying the action planning required for the next phase.
• ULI Minnesota: The working group is starting to draft the final report from a series of virtual workshops that engaged the community and experts on a people-centric public/private partnership model or People-Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnership (P4) for the Rondo Community Land Bridge. This will enable the partners to expend $6.9 million appropriated by the state of Minnesota and expected funds from the federal transportation and infrastructure committee bill.

Finally, the meeting highlighted the call for proposals for the 2021-2022 District Council grant.

About the 2020–2021 District Council Infrastructure Grant Cohort

The Curtis Infrastructure Initiative has partnered with six ULI district councils across North America to provide technical assistance as part of a cohort to help build capacity to reconnect divided communities—physically, socially, and digitally. This cohort of ULI members and staff, local leaders, and other global experts meets regularly over the course of a year to identify key issues, share best practices, and provide updates on projects to support each other in addressing complex infrastructure challenges.

Click here to learn more about each of the six selected projects and view other resources to create more equitable and resilient infrastructure investments that enhance long-term community value.