Met Council approves grants for transit corridor projects
The Metropolitan Council has approved more than $10 million in grants to projects along existing and future transit corridors.
Communities awarded funding are Bloomington, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Fridley, Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The grants will support development along rail and bus routes that are high density, pedestrian friendly, mixed use, and near transit stations or bus stops.
Council Chair Susan Haigh said projects must provide good housing with easy access to transportation.
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"What's exciting about these grants is that from these new investments will be created 870 new housing units, we'll be cleaning up four acres of polluted land and very exciting, leveraging over $200 million in private investment."
Council officials estimate hundreds of new and affordable housing units and more than 1,500 construction jobs will result from these competitive grants.
"To make sure and solve those development problems that the market can't do on its own," Haigh said. "So if there is land that needs to be cleaned up that is polluted or if we need to create some affordable housing along transitways, that's what these grants help to do."
Projects awarded under this program are required to generate jobs or affordable housing, encourage private investment and serve as a model of transit-oriented development.