Franken, Ellison Announce $5 Million for Metropolitan Council
Funds will support planning along local transit corridors
Today, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will award a $5,000,000 grant to the Metropolitan Council in St. Paul. The funds are part of the Department's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning program.
"Every day, the Metropolitan Council allows thousands of Minnesotans to travel to work and provides essential services to neighborhoods all over the Twin Cities," said Sen. Franken. "These funds will allow the Council to plan for the future and to continue providing the quality of service we've come to expect of them."
"With this grant, the federal government is investing in the future of the Twin Cities and promoting a sustainable, economically strong future," said Rep. Ellison "These funds will tie our public transit investments in the Central Corridor and Southwest Transit directly to housing, community development and access to jobs for thousands of residents of the Twin Cities."
With the funds, the Metropolitan Council will:
• support comprehensive transit corridor plans that include strategies to provide access to living-wage jobs and affordable and life-cycle housing choices
• align workforce opportunities with corridor employment prospects
• improve connections to sources of fresh, locally-grown, and ethnic foods
• deploy innovative storm water management techniques
• encourage active living by improving bike and pedestrian connections from station areas to jobs, housing, retail, and recreation
• support existing businesses
• mitigate the impacts of potential gentrification
• reduce energy use
