Metro Cities News 7/12/24

Jul

In This Issue:

Join Us to Discuss Draft Regional Density Policy Recommendations

Metro Cities will host an online forum next Tuesday afternoon for city officials and staff to learn about minimum density recommendations that may be proposed for the next regional development guide. The forum will include information from the Metropolitan Council about policy approaches under consideration and an opportunity for questions and feedback.

City elected officials and staff are welcome. The forum will be held Tuesday, July 16th from 1:30 – 3:00 pm. Below are links to the draft land use policy chapter as well as a 2050 density analysis report, for background information and context.

Please email Jennifer Dorn at [email protected] if you would like to attend and you will receive a Zoom link and calendar invite.

Local Affordable Housing Aid Update

The Department of Revenue has released the certified 2024 Local Affordable Housing Aid (LAHA) amounts for cities and counties, based on revenues collected from the 0.25% metropolitan area sales tax for housing that went into effect on October 1st, 2023.

This tax distributes the aid based on a city distribution factor, which is the number of households in a city that are cost-burdened, divided by the total cost-burdened households in all eligible cities. A “cost-burdened household” is one in which the gross rent is 30 percent or more of household income, or in which homeownership costs are 30 percent or more of household income. These distribution factors are calculated each year using data from the United States Census Bureau.

You can view the certified 2024 LAHA aid for cities HERE. The total aid available to cities equals 25% of the metropolitan area sales tax for housing, which amounted to $16.1 million in the first year. For the first year of aid, just seven months of collections were available for distribution; future years will provide a distribution based on twelve months of collections. This along with lower than projected sales tax revenues and data updates for distribution factors, are informing a lower aid amount for this year than was originally projected. Metro Cities is working to get additional information and will provide further updates. The LAHA will be paid in two installments, on July 20 and December 26.

Additionally, in June, Minnesota Housing released an updated FAQ document on the Local Affordable Housing Aid (LAHA) Program for cities in the metropolitan area over 10,000 in population. The document includes additional qualifying projects eligible for the aid, and information on reporting requirements for the funds. You can view the updated document HERE.

Questions? Please contact Ania McDonnell at [email protected].

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Technical Assistance

The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $2 million during the 2023 session for grants to local and tribal governments to hire consultants for technical assistance in identifying and applying for transportation-related federal discretionary grants. Fifteen percent of the funds are reserved for small cities, no more than one grant can be awarded to a local government, and the maximum award amount is $30,000. $600,000 of the total appropriation has been used to date. Click HERE for more information and click HERE to view the application page.

Contact Mike Lund at [email protected] or 651-215-4003 with any questions.

2024 Metro Cities Policy Committees

Metro Cities policy committee process will begin in a few weeks. If you have not signed up and would like to participate, committee descriptions and dates are on the website. Please be sure to sign up for the committee(s) you wish to attend. We look forward to seeing you later this month!