The Southwest LRT line will connect to other rail lines (Hiawatha, Central, and Northstar) and high-frequency bus routes in downtown Minneapolis, providing access to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, Mall of America, the State Capitol, and downtown St. Paul.  In order to maximize the public benefits of the investment in the Southwest LRT line, the Hennepin County Board established the Southwest LRT Community Works Program in December, 2009.

ULI Minnesota and the Regional Council of Mayors serve on the Steering Committee and Technical Implementation Committee with funding support from Living Cities to provide technical assistance, cultivate partnerships, build champions, and harvest best practices to support the following activities:

Comprehensive Corridor Investment Framework

• Development capacity and demand analysis, investment prioritization, and coordinating financing mechanisms to support job growth, housing choices, place making and connecting links.

Land Use and Transit Integration

• Adoption of practices that support systems change to integrate land use, infrastructure planning, and LRT engineering.

Corridor-Wide Housing Action Plan

• Policies, tools and strategies to support a full range of housing choices that respond to changing demographics and market trends.

ULI MN hosts Development Scenario Workshop for Southwest Corridor

ULI MN, along with public and private partners, hosted a workshop for the Southwest Corridor Community Works with a focus on providing a review of LRT key station areas from a private developer perspective. The Southwest Corridor Development Scenarios Workshop was a multi‐stage process that was initiated in November 2012 to develop high level infrastructure, development and phasing strategies for five selected SW Corridor station areas: Penn, Beltline, Blake, Golden Triangle, and Mitchell. The Workshop drew upon the insights of an independent panel of local and national developers, market specialists and urban designers. The intended outcome of the Workshop was to provide public stakeholders with recommendations that, if implemented, would best positron their station areas to realize private investment, job growth, community services and a full range of housing choices.

Southwest Corridor Workshop PowerPoint (12.12)
Southwest Corridor Development Scenarios Report with Executive Summary and Corridor Recommendations (12.12)
Southwest Corridor Development Scenarios Report with Station Recommendations – Part 1 (12.12)
Southwest Corridor Development Scenarios Report with Station Recommendations – Part 2 (12.12)
Southwest Corridor Development Scenarios Report Appendices (12.12)

Other Relevant Information:

Corridor Wide Infrastructure Recommendations to Accelerate Private Investment (11.12)
Ken Greenberg Notes (12.09)
SW Corridor Summary Land Uses (12.09)
SW Corridor Workshop Notes (12.09)
Twin Cities-SW Corridor-Marilee Utter Presentation (12.09)
Central Corridor Summary (12.09)
SW Corridor Workshop Summary