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Minneapolis Corridor Housing Strategy

About the Strategy
Innovations in Planning
Innovations in Site Acquisition
Innovations in Funding
Projects Completed or Underway

Awards

2006 Local Government Innovation Award from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs

2007 American Planning Association Planning Excellence Award for a Grassroots Initiative

2005 Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations Award finalist

2005 American Planning Association Outstanding Planning Award

Presentation and Articles

Corridor Housing Strategy presentation (PDF, 25 pages, 1.15 MB)

"Celebrate Public Service Excellence and Innovation," May 5, 2005, USA Today

About the Corridor Housing Strategy

The Minneapolis Corridor Housing Strategy includes several initiatives aimed at fostering affordable housing growth along the city’s transit corridors. The strategy combines three key innovations:

Planning - giving neighborhood organizations an early and comprehensive role in planning affordable housing development,
Site acquisition - acquiring critical sites on transit corridors, and
Funding - awarding priority housing funding to development that is tied to jobs and transit.

Innovations in Planning

The Minneapolis Corridor Housing Initiative

The objective of the Minneapolis Corridor Housing Initiative is to create vibrant neighborhoods with a mix of housing choices and access to transportation options, retail amenities, and job opportunities.

The initiative models a new way to build consensus around key development opportunities. Participants focus on creating proactive partnerships to produce higher density, affordable housing along Minneapolis' major corridors and streets. Facilitators, City planning and development staff, neighborhood partners, design and development experts and stakeholders work together to create guidelines and policies for housing that reflect shared neighborhood and City goals. Each project has a steering committee with access to unique market analysis and design resources and is supported by design experts.

In collaboration with the City of Minneapolis, the Center for Neighborhoods coordinates the Corridor Housing Initiative with support from a team of technical experts, the Family Housing Fund of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and the Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and beginning with Round II, the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Find more information about the Corridor Housing Initiative.

Corridors

Eight Minneapolis corridors have been selected to participate in the Corridor Housing Initiative: Nicollet Avenue in Loring Park, East Lake Street, Nicollet Avenue in Kingfield, South Lyndale Avenue, West Broadway Avenue, Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood, Central Avenue, and 38^th Street and Chicago Avenue.

Initiative Objectives

Physically enhance neighborhoods in ways that reflect community priorities and pride.
Build relationships that reflect trust, respect, and partnership between the city and county entities and neighborhood residents in a collaborative process that can be replicated in the future.
Illustrate successful examples of community planning and engagement to inform planning throughout the city.
Develop housing that meets the needs of a range of incomes and enhances the neighborhood environment.

Initiative Outcomes

Replicable models of proactive, integrated planning and consensus building among neighborhoods, the city, and the county.
Production of economically and politically viable development projects that include affordable housing options along corridors and meet city goals and neighborhood interests.
Model(s) and projects that produce new affordable housing options more efficiently and effectively than conventional development processes.

Innovations in Site Acquisition

The Higher Density Corridor Housing Program

CPEDs Higher Density Corridor Housing Program provides a funding source for public acquisition of sites for multifamily housing development on or near community, commercial and transit corridors (defined in The Minneapolis Plan). Funds are used to assemble larger sites for new mixed-income rental and ownership multifamily housing development.

Strategic public acquisition is identified as a necessary component of the Corridor Housing Strategy to ensure control of key corridor sites.

Program guidelines and nomination form (PDF, 3 pages, 44 KB)

Capital Acquisition Revolving Fund

CPED is seeking nominations for a new acquisition assistance funding source for development projects located on commercial and transit corridors and at commercial nodes.

Open application period – no deadline

Program guidelines and nomination form

Innovations in Funding

Minneapolis Multifamily Housing Funding Programs

The city administers a number of competitive multifamily housing funding programs, including housing revenue bonds, low income housing tax credits, tax increment financing, ownership workforce housing funding and the city’s rental Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF). The programs give increased priority to proposals demonstrating proximity to jobs and transit and density appropriate to the location.

Minneapolis Affordable Housing Resolution

Corridor Housing Projects Under Way

Numerous Minneapolis corridor housing projects are already completed or underway with the assistance of city funding:

	Franklin Portland Gateway (Phase I Children’s Village Center): multi-use, mixed-income supportive housing at Franklin and Portland, 36 units of affordable rental and four units of ownership housing. Future phases in process.
	Franklin Portland Gateway (Phase II Jourdain): 41 units of rental housing.
	Midtown Exchange (Lake Street Corridor): 223 mixed-income rental and 88 for-sale units in the historic 1928 Sears Tower.
	Many Rivers East and West (Franklin Avenue Corridor): 76 units of mixed-income rental housing with first floor commercial space.
	19th and Central Avenue (Central Avenue Corridor): 51 units of mixed-income senior rental housing with commercial.
	The Boulevard (Lyndale Avenue Corridor): mixed-income and mixed-use family rental housing (24 units).
	Village in Phillips (Bloomington Avenue Corridor): 28 units of mixed-income for-sale housing. Future phases in process.
	West River Commons: (Lake Street Corridor) mixed-use development of a three- and four- story building with commercial space and 53 units of housing. The project will also include three town homes.