Central Minnesota chooses a future
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Brainerd, Minn. -- About 130 people from five counties got together Thursday and voted on their future.
They weren't making choices about next year's taxes or a big road or school project, or weighing in on a divisive election.
Instead, they voted on what they wanted central Minnesota to look like in 25 years and what they thought it was worth investing in and planning for.
Broadband? Yes, they said. Lots of connectivity is needed to make everything else run smoothly.
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Water quality? Yes, improving lake quality is a plus for the economy.
Roads? Enough to move products to market but perhaps let others go without maintenance.
Economy? Invest in ways that encourage increases in manufacturing, retail, health care and agriculture but maybe let sectors involving arts, construction, real estate and education services continue at current levels.
Affordable housing? More than is available now but don't aim for the moon.
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The exercise these people -- business people, local officials, high school students, retirees and others -- went through for two hours in a meeting room at The Lodge in Baxter was part of a two-year planning process. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the tune of $825,000, the "Central Minnesota Resilient Region" project is trying to create a shared idea for what residents and local governments can shoot for by the year 2035.
Launched in February, it's one of about 45 efforts HUD is underwriting around the country. Only a little over a dozen are rural.
It's an example of how a variety of organizers and leaders in Minnesota and elsewhere -- some elected, some not -- are trying a variety of ways to both sample public opinion and engage people in making choices.
In this case, for almost a year, small groups of people have been talking about land use, transportation, housing and economic development, and now those conversations will be woven into a large, single vision.
When organizers asked people's help in imagining potential economic, environmental and lifestyle futures that they need to prepare for, "We got everything from very optimistic to very dark and disturbing," said Phil Hunsicker of Envision Minnesota and one of the project's organizers.
On Thursday, Jean Coleman, sustainability organizer for the University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, led participants through a series of choices about parts of what that vision might look like.
How much growth did people want to see? Coleman sketched out alternate futures and asked them to choose. Most of those in the room made choices involving some growth but not rampant increases that might be prompted by a booming economy.
What about transportation? Most rejected a future of comprehensive public transit and road system improvements and the investments required. Instead, they preferred a vision that improved main rail and road lines but let some local streets go unmaintained.
"You're the experts," Cheryal Lee Hills told the people in the room. Hills is executive director of the Region 5 Development Commission and has spearheaded the project.
Local elected officials have been among the 200 people included in the project, and when it ultimately produces a vision for the area, they will be key to whether policies get enacted to carry it out.
Organizers plan to bring the group together again in May to look at how people's preferences on Thursday might translate into public policy.