ULI Minnesota and the Regional Council of Mayors release an action strategy to make the hardest development easier to do.

Leaders in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region recognize that the world has changed; the old development models no longer meet diversifying market preferences or embrace emerging opportunities. To help their region compete, ULI Minnesota in partnership with the Regional Council of Mayors (RCM) created a focused list of strategies to encourage transformative development. They examined the rules and incentives that guide the real estate market and produced an action strategy targeting the region’s development culture, regulations, and incentives.

Reinvesting in the Region: An Action Plan to Make It Easier to Do Better proposes “a bold new toolbox to catalyze transformative investments.”

Inspired by the ULI MN/RCM’s Reinvesting in the Region, ULI Infrastructure Initiative produced the Transformative Development Action Strategy Toolkit for Impact summarizing the ULI MN/RCM process and describing how communities can embrace transformative investments and create their own strategies for success.

Download the Toolkit for Impact

Reinvesting in the Region rose out of the work of the ULI MN/RCM Connecting Transportation and Land Use Systems (CTLUS) Initiative, a multi-year effort launched with the support of the ULI/Curtis Regional Infrastructure Project. Other CTLUS projects include

• CTLUS in the Southwest Corridor: With the assistance of ULI Minnesota, the cities and county along the new southwest corridor light rail line are collaborating on land use strategies in advance of engineering for the line.
• Metropolitan Centers and Walkability Indicators: Analysis of the Twin Cities major employment centers included development of a tool to assess their “walkability,” conducted in partnership with the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD).
• Forums and Workshops: CTLUS also regularly sponsors educational programs, including on Bus Rapid Transit in December 2009 and on Public/Private Partnerships in April 2010.

For more information on the Transformative Development Action Strategy or any of the CTLUS activities, contact Caren Dewar, executive director of ULI Minnesota, at [email protected].