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Metro Cities News 06/05/20

by: Jennifer Dorn
Category: Newsletter
Jun
05

 

In This Issue:

 

Governor Announces Phase III of Stay Safe MN

During his administration’s daily COVID-19 briefing Friday, Governor Walz announced Executive Order 20-74, which moves the state toward the next phase of its reopening. Phase III will begin on June 10 and includes the following changes: 

  • 25 people can gather together outdoors, 10 indoors
  • Restaurants and bars open for indoor dining at 50% capacity
  • Salons and other personal care facilities open at 50% capacity
  • Places of worship open at 50% capacity
  • Gyms and fitness centers open at 25% capacity
  • Entertainment venues (theaters, arcades, museums) open at 25% percent
  • Outdoor entertainment open with a max of 250 people
  • Swimming pools open at 50% capacity
  • Sports have been divided into low and high risk categories
  • Maximum of 250 people in any of these cases

See the DEED website for specific guidance in any of these areas.

As with previous phases, any businesses looking to reopen must develop plans to ensure social distancing and other measures are adhered to. Businesses that never closed must also develop plans; these are due at the end of the month (June 29). These changes will be monitored according to the Department of Health’s five Dial Back Indicators. These measures include the percentage of positive tests, the total case growth, the testing rate, the hospitalization rate and the rate of community spread. The Governor maintains that if sudden spikes in case numbers occur some of these reopening measures could be dialed back.

Click HERE for the full text of Executive Order 20-74.


COVID-19 Resources for City Officials

This week, Metro Cities made several changes to its COVID-19 Resources web page. Guidance and other resources are now sorted by issue area instead of by publishing entity. Articles from the news media are sorted based on the issue category, so that pieces regarding the reopening of restaurants appear next to the official guidance from the state on that topic. The page now features a hyperlinked table of contents to allow for quick and efficient navigation of the available resources.

Click HERE to view the refreshed COVID-19 web page.

 

Special Legislative Session in June Appears Likely

During a press conference this week, Governor Walz discussed calling the Legislature back into session. To extend peacetime emergency orders beyond 30 days requires providing the Legislature a chance to vote; if they are not in session, the Governor is required to call a session to allow the bodies to weigh in. The Governor discussed other session items, including legislation to address reforms following the death of George Floyd. The People of Color and Indigenous Caucus (POCI) has released several proposals for legislation they are seeking consideration of during the special session.
Metro Cities will provide session updates and information once a special session is underway. A recap of the 2020 regular session will be provided next week.

 

Metropolitan Council Updating Housing Performance Score Methodology – FEEDBACK REQUESTED

The Metropolitan Council is considering changes to the scoring methodology it uses to determine a city’s housing performance score. The scores had been used in evaluating Livable Communities projects and transportation projects through the Regional Solicitation process. The LCA program discontinued their use in this year’s awards. They are still in use for 2020 transportation applications.

Council staff outlined proposed changes at a May 18 Community Development committee meeting. The changes include: transitioning from total development cost to ALHOA (affordable and lifecycle housing amount), shift from counting shelter facilities to the number of shelter beds, dropping scoring for a city’s housing stock affordable to residents earning up to 80 percent AMI, and adding new local housing policies as ways for cities to earn additional points.

The Council plans to continue to auto-populate data it collects and will unveil a new data collection and scoring website later this year, with the goal of making city participation in filling out the form more efficient.

Metro Cities policies support Housing Performance Score criteria that recognize varying local resource capacities, tools, programs and policies to support housing production and the market nature of housing development, and that do not limit cities to a prescriptive list of tools and policies. The criteria for determining the score should adequately recognize the current tools, policies and resources employed by local governments and not restrict points to only recently used policies, recognizing the market nature of housing development. Metro Cities also supports a process for local governments to review, comment on and appeal preliminary Housing Performance Scores as well as provide additional information to be used in calculating the scores.

Metro Cities is interested in your city’s comments on the proposed changes. The Council has posted two documents that explain the HPS program and changes. Contact Charlie Vander Aarde at 651-366-7564 or [email protected] with feedback and questions.


MCES Budget Workshop and Proposed Wastewater Rates

The Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES) will hold the second of two remote budget webinars on June 11th. See below for registration information. MCES staff are providing information on the rate setting process and wastewater capital improvement needs. The proposed municipal wastewater charge (MWC) is proposed at 2% for 2021, and the Sewer Availability Charge (SAC) is proposed to remain flat for 2021-22.
The total operating budget of MCES is $323 million, with $240 million coming from the MWC. Staff will present feedback and the proposed rates to the Metropolitan Council Environment Committee at their July 14th meeting and the full Council will consider rate setting at their July 22nd meeting. Metro Cities will post the webinar slides once they are available.
Information for the next webinar is below. Click on the link “register” event at the bottom of the event page. Registration is required.

Questions about the municipal wastewater charge can be directed to [email protected]. Questions about the 2020 MCES Budget Webinar can be directed to Kate Nyquist at [email protected].

 

TAC Recommends Release of Draft TIP for Public Comment

The Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) has recommended the release of the 2021-24 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP is a four-year list of federally funded transportation projects required for all metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). The TIP includes all projects funded with federal transportation funds, as well as regionally significant projects. Federal regulations require that a TIP be developed at least every four years.
The Metropolitan Council revises its TIP every year in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The TIP includes projects valued at approximately $4.8 billion and includes highway, freight transit, bicycle, and pedestrian projects. Approximately 15% of these funds come from Regional Solicitation funding. The draft 2021- 2024 TIP and its development process will meet applicable federal requirements once the public input process is complete. The public comment period is scheduled to run from June 22 to August 6. TAB is expected to consider the release of the TIP at its June 17th meeting. To view the draft TIP, click here.

 

DEED’s COVID-19 Efforts Reviewed

Steve Grove, Commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, spoke to the Select Committee on Minnesota’s Pandemic Response and Rebuilding on June 5. Before discussing what the department has done regarding the pandemic, Grove outlined some of the steps DEED is taking to respond to community challenges resulting from the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests. He highlighted DEED’s intent to follow the lead of community leaders as they partner with city officials. The department will explore what existing tools they can put into play, federal disaster relief being one. The state is working on a disaster declaration to access federal resources (similar to what was done for COVID-19) and are working with the state’s congressional delegation. Additional state resources could be made available through appropriation bonds, the dislocated worker program and the state’s Small Business Development Centers. Grove said the likely special session represented a good opportunity to work on a few ideas related to economic development in the areas of the Twin Cities most impacted by the fallout.

Regarding COVID-19, the commissioner walked members through the changes in federal law that gave the state additional resources to address the needs of residents. The CARES Act expanded what Minnesota was able to do with their UI system by extended the length of benefits, increased the amount received, and expanded the eligibility for the program. He then described the two state-level programs implemented in response to COVID-19 to help small businesses. These include the over $30 million in small business emergency loans and the $10 million small business loan guarantee program.

If called into a special session, the legislature is considering recapitalizing the small business assistance program that was initially funded in March. Earlier in the week, the House Jobs committee considered draft language that would put $60 million of federal CARES Act funds into the program and award grants up to $10,000 for affected businesses. $30 million would go to the metro and $30 million to greater Minnesota. The state would accept applications during an open application window of no more than ten days. Grants would be awarded via lottery.

 

Sensitivity Analysis of Twin Cities Highway Mobility Presented to TAC

Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) heard a presentation on the findings of the Sensitivity Analysis for the Twin Cities Highway Mobility Studies. This study was conducted by the Met Council in collaboration with MnDOT. The goal of the study was to apply a new methodology, used in MnDOT’s Greater Minnesota Mobility Study (2018), to identify freeway and non-freeway arterial roadway mobility and reliability issues on the National Highway System (NHS) in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. These results were then compared to the MnDOT Congestion Report and the Met Council congestion speed data analysis to look for differences and similarities in problem area identification.
The studies key findings included: studies that use different methodologies are identifying the more congested areas, are identifying similar mobility/reliability problem areas, and scoring of consistent congestion areas may not be getting identified as unreliable. The study also found that programmed investments are targeting key mobility/reliability issues.
To view the Sensitivity Analysis for the Twin Cities Highway Mobility Studies, click here.

 

 

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