Hennepin County Department of Housing, Community Works and Transit 2007 Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Guidelines Hennepin County Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Bond Funds Hennepin County Housing, Community Works and Transit 417 North Fifth Street, Suite 320 Minneapolis, MN 55401-1362 Please note that awards under this program may be funded out of the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds. You should consider whether the source of funds has implications, financial or otherwise, to your project. I. Introduction Laws of Minnesota 2001, Chapter 214, Section 10, expanded the authority of Hennepin County to issue bonds without referendum under its capital improvement bond authority to finance public and private multi-jurisdictional housing and redevelopment activities. (See Appendix B Definitions.) Hennepin County is making available $2 million in Capital Bond funds to support multijurisdictional Transit Oriented Development (TOD) housing and redevelopment projects 1
located at or directly adjacent to light rail stations and major bus transit centers where transit service is frequent and high capacity. These funds are intended to supplant, not replace, existing available resources, and increase use of Transit Corridors in Hennepin County. II. Eligible Applicants Eligible applicants include: Statutory or home rule charter cities or towns, development authorities (e.g. Housing Redevelopment Authority, Economic Development Authority or Port Authority) and private entities. The government body for the jurisdiction in which the project takes place must adopt resolutions that authorize submittal of the application and execution of subsequent implementing grant agreements and contracts, document that the project is in a Redevelopment Project Area, and approve participation in a multijurisdictional project with Hennepin County and the Hennepin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HCHRA). III. Eligible Areas are in Hennepin County Only Funding is only available to those multi-jurisdictional programs and projects in Hennepin County that are located within officially designated Redevelopment Project Areas or Housing Districts and are adjacent to Hennepin County Transit Corridors, and/or where new or enhanced transit services supporting Hennepin County strategies are taking place. Eligible areas include, but are not limited to: 29 th Street Midtown Greenway; Hiawatha LRT Corridor; Northeast Diagonal, Dakota Rail Line, Southwest Corridor; and the County Road 81 Bottineau Boulevard, including Lowry Avenue and West Broadway. Applicants must document access to existing and enhanced bus transit service, where applicable. IV. Eligible Activities PREFERENCE GIVEN TO ACTIVITIES THAT INCREASE TRANSIT RIDERSHIP Eligible activities and use of funds that support a public purpose include: a) Acquire real property for the purpose of removing, preventing or reducing blight, blighting factors or the causes of blight; b) Clear acquired property and install streets, utilities, and site improvements for uses in accordance with the redevelopment project; c) Sell or lease acquired land for uses in accordance with the redevelopment plan; and, d) Installation of public infrastructure improvements, including pedestrian lighting, that improve pedestrian and transit rider safety. V. Funding Availability Hennepin County Capital Bond Funds are the source of funding for this program. Funding can be made available in the form of grants and loans. Hennepin County may offer either 2
grants or loans to approved applicants. Grant funds are provided on a reimbursement basis only. Grantees will only be reimbursed for actual costs as approved in the grant application and subsequent negotiated work programs and contracts. Loan funds may be made with negotiated rates and terms. Loans may require execution of loan agreements, promissory notes and security agreements. VI. Application Selection and Approval Process Applications will be reviewed by the Hennepin County Department of Housing, Community Works and Transit and approved by Hennepin County and the HCHRA Hennepin County Boards in the fall of 2007. Funding will be available in January 2008. Selection criteria include, but are not limited to: Extent to which projects are directly adjacent to transit stops along Hennepin County Transit Corridors; Extent to which projects increase density near Transit Corridors; Extent to which projects increase ridership of transit services; Extent to which projects leverage other public and private resources. The review process will also consider: Extent to which site design connects building entrance(s) to functional, ADA approved sidewalks, intersections and/or trails leading to bus or LRT stop. Extent to which pedestrians or bicyclists would access the transit system from the proposed development, and the walking or bicycling distance to nearest transit stop(s). VII. Application Submittal and Procedures Submittal Deadline: February 22, 2007 4:00 p.m. Completion of application with accompanying applicant Resolutions. Submit one original application and four copies. VIII. Program Contact Potential applicants are encouraged to review projects with Mr. Connoy prior to submittal. Patrick R. Connoy Economic Development Project Coordinator Hennepin County Housing, Community Works and Transit 417 North Fifth Street, Suite 320 Minneapolis, MN 55401-1362 612-348-2215 3
612-348-9710 (fax) patrick.connoy@co.hennepin.mn.us IX. Limitations: Under Minnesota law, data submitted by a business to a government entity in response to a request for proposal are private or nonpublic until the responses are opened. Once the responses are opened, the name of the proposer becomes public. All other data in a proposer s response to a request for proposal are private or nonpublic data until completion of the evaluation process. Completion of the evaluation process means that the government entity has completed negotiating the contract with the selected proposer. After a government entity has completed the evaluation process, all remaining data submitted by all proposers are public with the exception of trade secret data as defined and classified in Minnesota Statute Section 13.37. A statement by a proposer that data are copyrighted or otherwise protected does not prevent public access to the data contained in the response if such data does not qualify as trade secret data. This application does not commit Hennepin County or the HCHRA to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal for this application. Hennepin County and the HCHRA reserve the right to accept or reject any or all proposals received as a result of this application, to negotiate with all qualified proposers, to use any or all proposer ideas and/or approaches presented, or to cancel in part or in its entirety this application, if it is the best interest of Hennepin County and the HCHRA to do so. Hennepin County and the HCHRA may require the entities selected to participate in negotiations to submit any fiscal, technical, or other revisions of their proposals that may result from negotiations. 4
RESOLUTION City Approving the Application BE IT RESOLVED that the city of, in accordance with Minnesota Statutes 383B.77, subd. 3., supports the Transit Oriented Development loan/grant application submitted to the Hennepin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority on Date, by Applicant For the Site Name site. I certify that the above resolution was adopted by the city council on Date Signed: Authorized Official Title: Date: Witnessed by: Title: Date: 5
Appendix A 2030 Transitways Map (see Related Links External Links for the map) 6
Appendix B DEFINITIONS ACT Minnesota Statutes, Chapters 214, 373, 383B and 469. AUTHORITY the Hennepin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority or its Board. BLIGHTED AREA any area with buildings or improvements which, by reason of dilapidation, obsolescence, overcrowding, faulty arrangement or design, lack of ventilation, light, sanitary facilities, excessive land coverage, deleterious land use, or obsolete layout, or any combination of these or other factors, are detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community. BOND refunding bonds, notes, interim certificates, debentures or other obligations issued by an authority pursuant to sections 469.001 to 469.047, or issued by an Authority or Hennepin County pursuant to 383B.79. Also means an obligation as defined under section 475.51. CITY a home rule charter or statutory city. COUNTY Hennepin County, Minnesota. GOVERNING BODY for a city, the city council; for a school district, the school board; for a county, the county board; and for a town, the board of supervisors. HOUSING PROJECT any work or undertaking to provide decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for persons of low and moderate-income and their families. Such work or undertaking may include acquisition or provision of buildings, land, equipment, facilities, and other real or personal property for necessary, convenient, or desirable appurtenances, streets, sewers, water service, utilities, site preparation, landscaping, administrative, community, health, recreational, welfare, or other purposes. Housing Project also includes the planning of the buildings and improvements, the acquisition of property, the demolition or removal of existing structures, the construction, reconstruction, alteration, and repair of the improvements and all other work in connection therewith. LOW INCOME persons and families who lack sufficient income to enable them, without financial assistance, to live in decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings, without overcrowding. MODERATE INCOME persons and families whose income is not adequate to cause private enterprise to provide without governmental assistance a substantial supply of housing at rents or prices within their financial means. 7
MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL 383B.79, Subdivision 1 enabled creation of a multijurisdictional reinvestment program involving Hennepin County, the cities of Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, and other interested statutory or home rule charter cities in Hennepin County, the Minneapolis Park Board, and the suburban Hennepin County Park District. The multijurisdictional program must include plans for one or more of the following: housing rehabilitation and removals, industrial polluted land cleanup, water ponding, environmental cleanup, community corridor connections, corridor planning, creation of green space, acquisition of property, development and redevelopment of parks and open space, water quality and lakeshore improvement, development and redevelopment of housing and existing commercial projects, and job creation. PROJECT a housing project, a housing development project or a redevelopment project, or any combination of those projects which is part of a multi-jurisdictional program and established in accordance with the procedures set forth in Minnesota Statutes, Section 469.001 to 469.047. REDEVELOPMENT PLAN a plan approved by the governing body, or by an agency designated by the governing body for the purpose of approving such plans or authorized by law to do so, of each city in which any of a redevelopment project is to be carried out, which plan provides an outline for the development or redevelopment of the area and is sufficiently complete 1) to indicate its relationship to definite local objectives as to appropriate land uses; and 2) to indicate general land uses and general standards of development or redevelopment. REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT any work or undertaking to: a) Acquire blighted areas and other real property for the purpose of removing, preventing, or reducing blight, blighting factors, or the causes of blight; b) Clear any areas acquired and install, construct or reconstruct streets, utilities, and site improvements essential to the preparation of sites for uses in accordance with the redevelopment plan; c) Sell or lease land so acquired for uses in accordance with the redevelopment plan; d) Prepare a redevelopment plan, and to incur initiation, planning, survey and other administrative costs of redevelopment project, and to prepare technical and financial plans and arrangements for buildings, structures, and improvements and all other work in connection therewith; or e) Activities or the elimination or for the prevention of the development or spread of slums or blighted or deteriorating areas and may involve any work or undertaking for that purpose constituting a redevelopment project or any rehabilitation or conservation work. For this purpose, rehabilitation or conservation work may include: a) Carrying out plans for a program of voluntary or compulsory repair and rehabilitation of buildings or other improvements; b) Acquisition of real property and demolition, removal, or rehabilitation of buildings and improvements thereon where necessary to eliminate unhealthful, unsanitary or unsafe conditions, lessen density, reduce traffic hazards, eliminate 8
obsolete or other uses detrimental to the public welfare, or to otherwise remove or prevent the spread of blight or deterioration, to promote historic and architectural preservation, or to provide land for needed public facilities; c) Installation, construction, or reconstruction of streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds, and other improvements necessary for carrying out the objectives of the urban renewal project; d) The disposition, for uses in accordance with the objectives of the urban renewal project, of any property or part thereof acquired in the area of the project; provided that the disposition shall be in the manner prescribed in sections 469.001 to 469.047 for the disposition of property in a redevelopment project area; e) Relocation within or outside the project area of structures that will be restored and maintained for architectural or historic purposes; f) Restoration of acquired properties of historic or architectural value; and g) Construction of foundations and platforms necessary for the provision of air rights sites. The term redevelopment project also means a redevelopment project initiated as then provided by law and approved by the governing body of the city prior to July 1, 1951, as prescribed by Minnesota Statutes 1949, section 462.521. TRANSIT CORRIDOR a Hennepin County designated linear transportation route or transit Right of Way. May be Light Rail, Bus or Bus Rapid Transit. TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (TOD) refers to projects and developments, which are shaped by transit in terms of parking, density, and/or building orientation in comparison to conventional development. Successful TOD reinforces both the community and the transit system, exhibits a compact and efficient use of available space, rather than auto oriented sprawl, and contains a diversity and mix of uses with daily conveniences and transit at the center. The pedestrian-friendly physical design encourages walking, bicycling and access by people with physical disabilities. The spatial extent of TOD is the maximum comfortable walking distance, roughly ¼ mile for existing transit stops or ½ mile for rail-based TOD. The California Department of Transportation September 2002 Statewide Transit-Oriented Development Study defined TOD as moderate to higher-density development, located within an easy walk of a major transit stop, generally with a mix of residential, employment and shopping opportunities designed for pedestrians without excluding the auto. TOD can be new construction or redevelopment of one or more buildings whose design and orientation facilitate transit use. 9