HOLLY HANSEN
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
CLOQUET (POPULATION 12,635)

After recovering from the impacts of the late-2000s housing recession, Cloquet city staff educated elected officials on the importance of economic development tools and incentives to support housing development. To keep the ball rolling, in 2014, the city initiated a housing study and formed an implementation steering committee. The process inspired the city and the Cloquet Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to act. Since then, many partnerships have been formed and housing projects developed.

For example, the city partnered with Carlton County on tax-forfeited properties, transferring them to contractors to ensure their redevelopment. Cloquet attracted multifamily, single-family, senior development projects, and grant opportunities to rehabilitate homes, and it collaborated with school district ISD 94 to solicit a developer to redevelop its 235,000 square-foot historic facility into workforce housing called Carlton Lofts.

The city also has attracted housing developers interested in adaptive reuse projects. To do that, Cloquet acquires and condemns properties that are strategic housing opportunities. Recent city projects include redeveloping a city-owned vacant water tower site, redeveloping a farmhouse site into townhome construction, and pursuing condemnation and redevelopment of the historic Hotel Solem. The hotel will be revamped into housing using tax increment financing, an Economic Development Administration (EDA) loan, and a Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development redevelopment grant.

Cloquet has initiated a housing study update and will adopt the International Property Maintenance Code to assist with existing property maintenance. It also created a local housing trust fund to allocate Statewide Affordable Housing Aid for future affordability projects, and the Cloquet EDA modified a loan fund to allow gap financing for housing development loans that are in partnership with the city.

The infrastructure needed to support market-rate and workforce housing projects remains a hurdle. While there are some new state programs, there are few statutory tools to support infrastructure for market-rate housing ownership. Developers are hesitant to invest in infrastructure costs in light of incremental housing demand and tight profit margins.

Looking ahead, Cloquet is focused on seeing more mixed-income housing projects developed. As a state, we need to find pathways of funding for either cities or developers to acquire land and implement infrastructure more flexibly than what is currently available. This will create more pathways to expand housing ownership in our cities.

JULIE URBAN
ASSISTANT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
RICHFIELD (POPULATION 36,710)

For years, the City of Richfield saw itself as an affordable community whose greatest needs were to replace housing lost to airport expansion and to diversify our housing stock, in both types and price. Several factors led to a shift in focus in the late 2010s: the conversion of the 698-unit Crossroads at Penn apartment community to the more expensive Concierge apartments, and a growing awareness of homeownership disparity rates and the role racial covenants played in shaping the community. Awareness and urgency of the larger housing crisis also greatly increased community support for this work.

City leaders heard from the community that prioritizing housing stability, preserving and maintaining affordability, and meeting the housing needs of all residents was considered critical. Leaders stepped up and urged staff to concentrate efforts and resources on meeting these housing needs.

Since 2017, we’ve:

• Formalized an inclusionary housing policy that prioritizes larger and accessible units.
• Created a down payment assistance program focused on underserved communities.
• Created an apartment remodeling program for property owners.
• Adopted tenant protections.
• Created an affordable housing trust fund.
• Amended ordinances to allow accessory dwelling units and duplexes throughout the community.
• Helped to preserve and expand a manufactured home community when it became cooperatively owned.
• Supported the construction of over 1,400 apartment units and nearly 100 for-sale units, and the preservation and rehabilitation of 475 aging apartments.

Barriers to housing can take many forms, some of which we can control or influence, others that we cannot. As a fully developed community with a well-established land use pattern, growth can only happen within the existing landscape. In addition to the usual challenges that accompany redevelopment, we’ve heard worries from residents who are wary of the changes that are taking place. As we continue our work to update ordinances and devote funding to this work, creativity, strong leadership, communication, and effective partners have been key to making progress.

Cities are facing increasing pressure from other levels of government to step up and help address regional housing needs. We are grateful for the state’s support of this work through the new Local Affordable Housing Aid and Bring it Home legislation. Additional funds that offer communities the flexibility to address the particular needs of their community are a great way to support this work.