Ramsey County: Economic Development Authority to allow flexibility on housing projects
The county's Housing Redevelopment Authority previously was only able to fund specifically housing-related projects. With the addition of the EDA, the HRA's levy funding now can be used more broadly, according to District 6 Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong. Small business programming, for example, would be allowed.
The creation of the EDA is allowed due an omnibus bill signed last month by Gov. Tim Walz.
'This legislation allows Ramsey County to use the HRA levy more flexibly by expanding what it can fund without adding another tax,' Xiong said in a May 27 statement. 'That means deeper investments in small business support, commercial corridors, workforce infrastructure, and the stability of the neighborhoods we serve. Notably, the passage of the EDA comes at a critical time as counties brace for significant cuts to federal funding to housing, creating high-stakes urgency to stretch every local dollar further and smarter.'
City councils in the county who are members of the HRA must opt-in or opt-out of business programming through the passage of resolutions by June.
Expanding the HRA's authority supports the county in taking a more modern approach to an affordable housing plan, said Rep. Liz Lee, DFL-St. Paul, who authored the legislation in the Minnesota House. It will allow the county to focus on needs beyond just housing.
It could mean affordable housing units above a nonprofit laundromat, Lee said. It will help officials create a community people want to live in, rather than just concentrating those living in poverty into public housing.
Mixed-use projects can be challenging to develop across the entire county, said Josh Olson, Ramsey County's director of Community and Economic Development.
'I think the two things that I would say is, this is about flexibility more than anything else. It's about our opportunity to kind of support the community in a proactive but also holistic way.' Olson said. 'The other is, the county is going to remain focused on affordable housing. That is, and has been the lion's share of how we've spent the HRA, and I expect that to not change substantially even with this change in legislation.'
The flexibility ties into the county's Economic Competitiveness and Inclusion Plan, with the county focusing on adding affordable housing, redevelopment, businesses and workforce, Olson said.
'We've been in a housing crisis here, nationally, regionally, and we have felt that we still can intend to invest heavily through our multiple uses, but that investing solely in housing or narrowly in housing doesn't get the county out of a housing crisis,' Olson said. 'And so one aspect of that is in that intersection where it supports businesses, and that, in turn, supports job opportunities and job growth as well as wage growth. And so that's really kind of the nexus that links all these things.'
The county directed $11.1 million to affordable housing and redevelopment projects as part of the 2022-2023 budget.
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