— The Greater Mankato Inter-City Leadership Visit (ICLV) to Charlottesville, Va., was a presentation of strategies for our community. These strategies need to be vetted with stakeholders but several show real promise and align with goals in Envision 2020. We are very fortunate to have a planning mechanism like Envision 2020 for facilitating the development of these strategies as they are brought back to Minnesota.

 Envision 2020 has multiple Key Performance Areas (KPA). A goal in Community Development/Regional Governance KPA is to “redefine and revitalize the city center.” The accomplishments in the Charlottesville downtown were completed with private, public, and non-profit participation.

Our community stakeholders can evaluate Charlottesville’s strategies for developing a downtown ice skating facility, recruitment of anchor tenants, and the best tools for helping our existing businesses thrive. The Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville utilized a Downtown Gift Certificate Program and provided seminars for it’s members on a variety of topics.

The City Center Partnership (a result of Envision 2020 that includes private, public, and non-profit representation) can evaluate these and other opportunities for implementation.  

The ICLV painted a picture for the importance of coordination, cooperation, and collaboration. These three verbs tie into another goal of the Community Development/Regional Governance KPA:  To develop effective strategies for regional governance for emergency plan-ning, energy needs, resource sharing, and displaying a regional identity.

 The ICLV emphasized the importance of coordination, cooperation and collaboration at a regional governance level because 1) Political boundaries rarely match the issues; 2) Political boundaries rarely match the best approach to solving the problem; 3) Residents pay little attention to the patchwork quilt of jurisdictions; and 4) Local governments don’t always have the resources to solve problems on their own.

 This goal is of particular importance as our community serves as a regional hub for South Central Minnesota. To capitalize on being a regional hub, planning efforts must include coordination, cooperation and collaboration. For example, local jurisdictions and regional entities can evaluate opportunities for practical transit linkages that accommodate commuting patterns and improve connectivity to the Minneapolis/St Paul area.

 As a result of the ICLV, community stakeholders now have a restocked cache of new strategies for evaluation. The two goals from Envision 2020 previously discussed can now be approached from new angles and I look forward to it as the Community Development/Regional Governance KPA chair.

 

 John F. Considine III is the community and economic development coordinator for Region Nine Development Commission.