Politics & Government

Apple Valley Seeks Livable Communities Grants from Met Council

Apple Valley City Council members on Thursday saw the proposals for four community-betterment projects they hope can get grant funding.

The Metropolitan Council will award $9 million in grants in 2011 from the Livable Communities Act Grant Program, and the City of Apple Valley is hoping to garner nearly $1.4 million of that.

Apple Valley City Council members on Thursday gave the go-ahead to submit proposals for four projects in the pre-application process, totaling $1,387,600:

  • Creating pedestrian trails between Founders Lane and Garrett Avenue, from Central Village to the Apple Valley Transit Station: $174,800
  • Time Square strip mall renovations: $171,300
  • Buying land for 214 senior housing units and improving parks in the Cobblestone Lake neighborhood: $896,500 ($598,000 for housing land, $298,500 for park improvements)
  • Fiber optic conduit line along the future extension of 147th Street West, between Pilot Knob Road and Flagstaff Avenue: $145,000

Projects are supposed to benefit housing, jobs and connections within the region, according to a memo to the city council. Things like new public streets and street improvements, public parking, pedestrian walkways, sewer improvements and lighting and furnishing for public spaces are eligible.

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Cost estimates for the projects are “very initial,” Community Development Director Bruce Nordquist said. They could change as much as 10 percent.

The Met Council, a regional planning body for seven Twin Cities metro counties, evaluates grant applications based on many factors, like how efficiently projects would use land, the extent to which a plan of execution is laid out, innovation and housing performance.

Find out what's happening in Apple Valley-Rosemountwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Incorporating affordable housing into the community is a condition for each of the 94 cities that have elected to participate in the Livable Communities Act Grant Program. Apple Valley needs 1,000 to 1,999 units between 2011 and 2020, according to a report by a Met Council advisory panel.

The pedestrian trails could score well because they’re part of a transit improvement area, Nordquist said Thursday, but it has been rejected in the past because it wasn’t connected to a shovel-ready project.

Time Square renovations would include the addition of plazas, parking lot and sidewalk improvements; the LCA grant would replace another underfunded grant, Nordquist said. He said the city will predict potential job impacts of all the proposed projects, but if all the Time Square spaces were filled it could produce 40 to 50 jobs, he said.

The Met Council could look favorably upon increasing new senior housing near retail and transit, Nordquist said. Park improvement proposals haven’t been reviewed in three or four years and haven’t been funded in a while, he said, but different LCA grant program requirements now are more supportive of park projects.

The city will submit pre-applications to the Met Council by May 20. Full applications are due July 15.  

Two past projects in Apple Valley that the LCA grants have funded included paying a consultant to help with design for development along Cedar Avenue, in light of Bus Rapid Transit construction, and paying a consultant to help with a strategy for industrial users of the Hanson Concrete site.


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