IV.2. Resolution Identifying the Need for Livable Communities Demonstration Account Funding and Authorizing Application for Grant Funds for Footprint Development; Needham
CITY OF HOPKINS
City Council Report 2025-048
To: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Revée Needham, Community Development Manager
Date: April 1, 2025
Subject: Resolution of Support for LCDA Grant Application for Footprint
Development
_____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDED ACTION
MOTION TO approve Resolution 2025-020 supporting an application for Footprint
Development LLC to the Metropolitan Council’s Pre-Development grant program.
OVERVIEW
To apply to the Metropolitan Council’s Pre-Development grant program, the City
Council needs to approve a resolution of support.
Pre-Development Grant Program
Pre-development grants are for teams who are defining or redefining a project that will
support Livable Communities and Imagine 2050 goals. Eligible costs are for early-stage
activities like design workshops, financial studies, project impact analyses, and
community engagement. Pre-Development Goals:
• Add new housing types and create affordable housing. Priority for projects with
deep affordability and/or serving populations who have barriers to finding
housing
• Create or preserve long-term living wage jobs or support economic opportunity
for people experiencing the most economic hardships
• Increase density on the site and make it easier for people to travel between
housing, jobs, services, and amenities
• Minimize climate impact by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving
natural resources
• Further equity outcomes by fostering regional connections, mitigating climate
impacts and implicit bias, removing barriers to access affordable housing,
creating living wage jobs, and supporting the creation of small businesses owned
and operated by a historically marginalized population
Approximately $2,000,000 is available in funding for 2025 across two rounds, with a
limit of $300,000 per City each round. A resolution of support is required to submit an
application. Developers cannot apply directly to the Metropolitan Council for funding,
the City must apply on behalf of developers. The Metropolitan Council awards grant
funds to cities, who then administer the funds to the subrecipient.
Planning & Economic
Development
City of Hopkins Application
Footprint Development has proposed a development project on City-owned property on
Mainstreet. As part of the Pre-Development Agreement, the City agreed to support an
application to the Metropolitan Council’s Pre-Development grant program. If the grant
were awarded to the City of Hopkins, the City would enter into a subrecipient grant
agreement with Footprint Development.
Supporting the application to the Pre-Development grant program does not commit the
City to grant land use approvals nor to sell the property.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
• Resolution 2025-020
• Hyperlink to Met Council Pre-Development Grant Webpage
CITY OF HOPKINS
HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
RESOLUTION 2025-020
RESOLUTION IDENTIFYING THE NEED FOR LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
DEMONSTRATION ACCOUNT FUNDING AND AUTHORIZING APPLICATION FOR
GRANT FUNDS FOR FOOTPRINT DEVELOPMENT
WHEREAS, the City of Hopkins is a participant in the Livable Communities Act’s Local
Housing Incentives Account Program for 2025 as determined by the Metropolitan
Council, and is therefore eligible to apply for Livable Communities Demonstration
Account funds; and
WHEREAS, the City has identified a proposed project within the City that meets the
Demonstration Account’s purposes and criteria and is consistent with and promotes the
purposes of the Metropolitan Livable Communities Act and the policies of the
Metropolitan Council’s adopted metropolitan development guide; and
WHEREAS, the City has the institutional, managerial and financial capability to ensure
adequate project administration; and,
WHEREAS, Footprint Development LLC has requested that the City sponsor an
application for Livable Communities Demonstration Account for its Sustainable Missing
Middle Housing project in the City of Hopkins; and,
WHEREAS, the City certifies that it will comply with all applicable laws and regulations
as stated in the grant agreement; and,
WHEREAS, the City agrees to act as a legal sponsor the project contained in the grant
application submitted on or before April 21, 2025; and,
WHEREAS, the City acknowledges Livable Communities Demonstration Account
grants are intended to fund projects or project components that can serve as models,
examples or prototypes for development or redevelopment projects elsewhere in the
region, and therefore represents that the proposed project or key components of the
proposed project can be replicated in other metropolitan-area communities; and,
WHEREAS, only a limited amount of grant funding is available through the
Metropolitan Council’s Livable Communities Demonstration Account during each
funding cycle and the Metropolitan Council has determined it is appropriate to allocate
those scarce grant funds only to eligible projects that would not occur without the
availability of Demonstration Account grant funding; and,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Hopkins
after appropriate examination and due consideration, hereby:
1. Finds that it is in the best interests of the City’s development goals and
priorities for the proposed project to occur at this particular site and at this
particular time.
2. Finds that the project components for which Livable Communities
Demonstration Account funding is sought:
a. Will not occur solely through private or other public investment within
the reasonably foreseeable future; and
b. Will occur within three years after a grand award only if Livable
Communities Demonstration Account funding is made available for this
project at this time.
3. Represents that Footprint Development LLC has undertaken reasonable and
good faith efforts to procure funding for the project components for which
Livable Communities Demonstration Account funding is sought but was not
able to find or secure from other sources funding that is necessary for project
component completion within three years.
4. Authorizes its City Manager or designee to submit on behalf of the City and
Footprint Development LLC an application for Metropolitan Council Livable
Communities Demonstration Account grant funds for the project
component(s) identified in the application, and authorizes the Mayor and City
Manager to execute such agreements as may be necessary to implement the
project on behalf of the City.
Adopted by the City Council of the City of Hopkins this 1st day of April, 2025.
By:___________________________
Patrick Hanlon, Mayor
ATTEST:
_______________________________
Amy Domeier, City Clerk