Browsing by Author "Mohamed, Kowsar"

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    A Gathering Within: An Attraction Beyond - The COR Development Engagement Plan
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2017) Cho, Joanne; Singer-Berk, Lila; Howard, Kurt; Powers, Denetrick; Steinhoff, Forrest; Mohamed, Kowsar
    This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. The COR, the city’s mixed-use, transit-oriented development along the Northstar Commuter Rail Corridor, was intended as a vibrant destination in the community, with a variety of uses of varying intensities within walking distance of each other. With less than half of The COR currently developed, Ramsey staff will soon be updating The COR development plan, and wanted assistance identifying appropriate strategies for including the public in the plan update processS. tudents in Dr. Dan Milz’s Planning and Participation Processes class reviewed the literature on public engagement around a planned development, researched case studies of engagement efforts around similar developments in other communities, and recommended key strategies for Ramsey to consider for engaging residents around development of The COR. The students’ final report and poster are available.
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    McHarg and the Metropolitan Council An (Un)likely Romance
    (2018-12) Adkins, Athena; Barton, Julie; Carrera, Lindsay; Mohamed, Kowsar; Williams, James
    Urban planning concerns itself with the organization of grids, systems, flow; of where people are, where people should be, and what they should do there. Ecologists study relationships between living things and the environment. Fifty years ago, Scottish landscape architect, author, and TV personality Ian McHarg wrote his seminal book, Design with Nature. That same year, he also delivered a report to the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities, An Ecological Study of the Twin Cities (Wallace et al, 1969). The Metropolitan Council had taken a bold step in thinking about their work differently--from an “ecology-first” perspective rather than an “economic-growth first” perspective. McHarg considered the grids, system, flow, and most importantly, where people were and where they should be, primarily through the lens of the relationships between all of the living things in the region and the land. The overall purpose of this report is to determine what impact, if any, McHarg’s report--and his ecology-first perspective--had on Metropolitan Council policymaking. McHarg spoke and wrote powerfully to what many considered the foremost planning challenge of the era, that of inadequate management of burgeoning economic growth. He also gave special attention to one of the most visible costs of poorly managed growth -- unconsidered destruction of sensitive open space and attendant harm to natural systems. In essence, McHarg believed that if planners took an “ecology-first” approach, the other goals of economic growth, housing, and transportation could all be realized, resulting in healthier and safer communities. The Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities was a first-of-its-kind regional governing body for the seven-county area. Within two years of its inception, the Council chose to commission McHarg to write a report assessing the area. Like McHarg, Twin Cities leaders were deeply concerned about the harmful effects of poorly managed growth, particularly the destruction of open space. In a 1967 report calling for the creation of the Metropolitan Council, the Citizens League identified open space protection among the most important functions of the envisioned body and warned, “Unless large tracts of parks and open space are acquired promptly, the land will be taken over by developers and lost for public purposes forever” (Citizens League, 1967).
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    Rehydrate Ramsey: Strengthening, Enhancing, and Protecting Water Resources
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2017) Hauf, Austin; Mohamed, Kowsar; Guerrero-Combs, Maia
    This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. Natural resources are highly valued by Ramsey residents, and the City has taken measures to protect these resources. However, some risks to natural resources and measures to protect them are poorly understood by residents. To better communicate the value of these resources and best practices for protecting them, students in Dr. Fernando Burga’s Land Use Planning class were enlisted to inventory Ramsey's aquatic natural resources, explain potential risks to these resources from human activities, outline Ramsey’s conservation policies and best practices for protecting these resources, and quantify the economic benefit from protection. A final report is available.
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    The Value of Water in the Twin Cities
    (Metropolitan Council, 2024-08) Davenport, Mae; Keeler, Bonnie; Roth, Sarah; Kreiter, Amelia; Rogers, Maggie; Keller, Meredith; Niehoff, Erin; Mohamed, Kowsar; Pradhananga, Amit; Delgado-Ortiz, Giovanni
    This report outlines findings from a four-year research project conducted by University of Minnesota (UMN) researchers in collaboration with the Metropolitan Council (hereafter Council), with funding from the Council’s Community Development and Environmental Services Division. The study area includes the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area seven-county region. In 2019, staff from the Council’s Environmental Services Division engaged with researchers from the UMN Center for Changing Landscapes and Humphrey School of Public Affairs to discuss the Council’s desire to better understand and represent the perspectives of socially and culturally diverse residents and their water relationships. The project’s goals are to uplift the perspectives and experiences of Twin Cities Metro Area residents, especially socially marginalized groups with the aim of representation justice in water policy and planning. Davenport et al. (2023, pg. 289) define representation justice in water as policy, planning, and management in which “people should reasonably expect that the diversity of water relationships and values of community members are fairly deliberated and equitably represented among those in power.” To center representation justice in our science, the UMN team committed to using rigorous and inclusive social science research methodologies to gather and share different narratives of water from and with communities and community leaders across MSP with the goal of better representing communities and influencing water policy, programming, and investments towards water justice. In 2021-2022, UMN researchers conducted a survey of Twin Cities Metro Area residents. Our original study design directed us to survey residents onsite, at community events. However, because of the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, an onsite survey was no longer possible. Instead, we administered a mail survey of residential households in the Twin Cities Metro Area to learn more about residents’ understanding of their water supply, perceived threats or concerns related to water services, familiarity with their water bill and local issues related to water in their communities. A detailed account of Phase I (2020-2022) work is presented in a separate technical report (Roth et al., 2022). This report presents findings from the second phase of social science research conducted as part of the larger two-phase project. This report describes three research activities conducted in Phase II from 2022-2024: • Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Municipal Surveys: A Review of Water Insights • Urban Water Values in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area • Water Policy Co-Development Workshops The report is organized into three sections. Each section reports on an activity and was written by project PIs and co-authors.