Messages from the Council Chair

This fall, the Metropolitan Council will roll out an impressive array of data, tools, and other resources to support counties, cities, and townships as they begin the process of visioning the future of their communities and updating their local comprehensive plans.

Few regions have what we have here – the ability to align growth, housing, water, and transportation across jurisdictions. It saves money, reduces competition for state and federal resources, and supports the economic growth of the region. It’s all part of the regional planning process put in place nearly 60 years ago by the Minnesota Legislature and strengthened over time by successive lawmakers.

But the Met Council doesn’t do this work in isolation. We are partners with local governments. We support their work to build and maintain strong, resilient communities. Since we adopted Imagine 2050, the regional development guide, earlier this year, we’ve been connecting with local government staff as we build tools and gather resources to ease the work for local governments to meet state planning requirements. 
 

An updated, strengthened Local Planning Handbook

The centerpiece of our efforts is the Local Planning Handbook. It is an online, one-stop shop for comprehensive planning. It provides clear guidance on the minimum planning requirements for local comprehensive plans and how to meet them. The handbook also supports communities to go beyond the minimum requirements by offering best practices and local planning highlights. These resources can help a community achieve its local goals and priorities while supporting the regional vision.

The handbook includes tools, maps, and resources personalized for each county, city, and township in the region. For example, a new greenhouse gas strategy planning tool has an inventory of emissions for each community and ways to project the impacts of various greenhouse gas reduction strategies on emissions. The handbook also has dedicated pages for each required plan element that contains tools and resources related to that element, for example, housing or water.

We built the Local Planning Handbook for and with local governments. We conducted user testing on the current handbook (and its tools) with new and experienced planners and took their input to build an even better resource for the 2050 planning cycle. As we’ve tested the new version, we’re getting extremely positive feedback.
 

Freeing up capacity so communities can take their plans to the next level

By providing free resources and guidance to achieve the minimum requirements, we hope to free up community capacity (financial and otherwise) to focus on taking their plans to the next level – and not exhaust their resources just completing the minimum. We will continue to offer planning grants to help local governments fund their planning work. 

You’ll be hearing more from us soon about the launch of the updated Local Planning Handbook and other tools and assistance we will offer as strong partners in the regional planning process.

Regional planning means every city, no matter its size, has a voice in shaping how our region grows—economically, sustainably, and equitably. We’re here to be your partner as you continue this critical work.

Charlie Zelle, Met Council Chair