A topic that I’d like to push out onto the table and create more conversation around is how to “leave the ladder down” for young people who want to own or rent a home. Many young people feel frustrated about the prospects of owning their own home, especially in Mendota Heights.

It is true that there are limited areas for growth in Mendota Heights. There is no large Thompson Reuters campus like in Eagan. There are no Ford Plant sites like in St. Paul. But even if the opportunities in Mendota Heights are few and far between, that doesn’t mean that there are zero opportunities for growth. On a smaller scale than Eagan or St. Paul there may be some opportunities to convert under-utilized office buildings or light industrial areas to housing that is focused on giving some of our hard-working young people a chance if they would like to come back and live here.

Even if there are only small areas for possible growth, these should be explored with the needs of young people in mind. Different types of housing could be considered and discussed that are more in the middle—somewhere between apartment buildings and large single family homes. In addition to leaving the ladder down for young people, small amounts of growth, where appropriate, broaden the tax base which helps with the needs of the City (including the Municipal Campus project) and the School District.

An indication of the massive scale of the national housing problem is the recently passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the largest piece of federal housing legislation since 1992. It passed in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion. In the U.S. House: 358 - 32. In the U.S. Senate: 85 -5. There will likely be more pressure and more incentives from the State and National level for local governments to do more on housing.