Urban and rural service areas

The region consists of a range of local characteristics, from the agricultural areas to the urban core, and the Met Council applies different policies tailored to each one. Imagine 2050 sets the visionary strategic direction for incorporating and implementing regional development goals in local comprehensive plans. This direction provides specific land use and development strategies for implementation but provides flexibility for local governments to determine how best to align with regional policies and work toward regional outcomes while still accomplishing local goals. The Met Council recognizes that variation exists in development patterns, neighborhoods, and land uses within each jurisdiction. Through its comprehensive plan, each local government determines how to implement the regional land use and development strategies in a manner that best meets local goals and suits the variation within their jurisdiction.  

The Met Council has distinguished between urban and rural land areas with the Metropolitan Urban Service Area (MUSA) as a means to manage land consumption, to deliver efficient regional services, and to preserve valued rural and agricultural areas. Examples of regional services differentiated in this manner include metropolitan wastewater services, the regional highway system, and the regular-route transit system. The Met Council monitors available land, density of development, and local government growth plans to ensure regional services are provided as requested. The MUSA represents the areas that already have regional wastewater service or are planned to receive service within the planning horizon.  

While the Urban Service Area constitutes about half of the land in the region, in 2020 about 93% of the population lived within this area. The Urban Service Area has the highest level of investment in regional and local services, including regional wastewater services. The Urban Service Area includes a diverse set of municipalities ranging from the urban downtowns in Minneapolis and Saint Paul to developing areas planning for staged growth and expansion with varying challenges and development expectations. A variety of residential neighborhoods, housing types, and densities, along with a varying mix of commercial and industrial areas that developed at different times in the region’s history, serve different development patterns and needs. The Met Council will continue to provide these regional services and will work with local governments to support growth that best capitalizes on regional systems and infrastructure investments. The Urban Service Area is divided into the following Community Designations:

Urban – Urban Edge – Suburban – Suburban Edge

About half of the seven-county region’s land area is within the Rural Service Area. These areas include a range of uses including cultivated farmland, vineyards, hobby farms, gravel mines, woodlands, small towns, scattered and clustered housing, open spaces, and significant expanses of the region’s natural systems. Aside from the investments in the regional parks system, investments in regional services are limited in the Rural Service Area. The Met Council strives to protect the vital agricultural lands and natural amenities in the Rural Service Area, and to recognize the desire for rural and small-town residential choices. In the Rural Service Area, the Met Council has discouraged high development densities typically seen in urban and suburban areas to ensure the orderly development of the region, efficient use of regional investments, and to protect agricultural land, natural resources, the quality and quantity of our water sources, and the rural landscape.  

It should be noted that some small cities within the Rural Service Area do have local development patterns similar to Urban Service Area communities and are typically geographically surrounded by unincorporated townships. These small cities typically provide local water supply and wastewater services, with a few exceptions that are connected to the Metropolitan Disposal System. These rural cities have historically been included in the Rural Service Area because they provide services to and are integrally connected to the surrounding rural and agricultural areas. The Rural Service Area is divided into the following community designations:

Rural Center - Diversified Rural – Rural Residential - Agricultural