Case Study: Smart Growth Twin City achieves sustainable regional growth planning with UrbanFootprint

Solving for a Brighter Future in the Twin Cities Region

Smart Growth Twin Cities, a regional planning initiative in the seven-county Twin Cities area, faced the challenge of accommodating an expected 280,000 additional households and 360,000 new jobs by 2030 while supporting sustainable growth. The team needed to protect natural resources, expand affordable housing, support rural communities, and preserve agricultural land. UrbanFootprint supported the effort through its planning and scenario analysis capabilities, working with the region’s broader land-use and transportation planning process.

UrbanFootprint helped Calthorpe Analytics and Smart Growth Twin Cities evaluate future land-use and transportation options through advanced scenario planning. The process produced three development alternatives, each showing different impacts on housing diversity, transportation choice, infrastructure costs, air quality, and environmental and agricultural preservation. It also included six local “opportunity sites” to test ideas and help educate the community about development options.