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Minnesota
Twin Cities' Metropolitan Council and Minnesota's Governor-Elect Differ on Growth Strategies
With the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Council under Democrat Ted
Mondale pushing for development along transit corridors, affordable
housing and a Blueprint 2030 focused on light rail, and the
Republican Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty favoring new roads,
proposing greater local control and telling radio listeners that
the council has grown ''too big for its britches,'' Pioneer Press
writer Mara H. Gottfried sees a risk for the region's planning and
ability to accommodate another million residents within 30 years.
As the governor-elect told her ''I don't like big government
organizations that are unelected,'' the writer finds him looking
into the possibility of hiring executive directors to run such
regional services as wastewater treatment, bringing the council
under the legislative commission on metropolitan affairs or
reconstituting it as an elected body. The governor-elect, the
writer continues, agrees with the council on the need to redevelop
older neighborhoods and sees ''some merit'' in mixed-use development
along transit corridors, but objects to an obsessive pursuit of the
goal, which ''excludes other needs.'' Egan Mayor Pat Awada --
Minnesota Auditor-elect -- thinks there will be a council ''very
different'' from the one ''that has tried to push their philosophy
down everyone's throat.'' On the other hand, former Democratic
council chairman Curt Johnson wouldn't be surprised if the incoming
governor pulls the council back wherever it may be overreaching,
but his impression is that ''he doesn't act in haste and he won't do
anything knee-jerk with the council.'' Chairman Mondale remains
optimistic. ''Every governor in the country would die to have a tool
like the Metropolitan Council,'' he says. ''Smart growth, the idea
that cities need to take charge and build the way they'd like, is
not a novel idea.'' -- Pioneer Press
11/17/2002
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