Members of the Minnesota Design Team will be began arriving Thursday March 31, to help Cambridge begin planning for the future.
A team of about 24 professionals, which has a broad range of specialties, including architects, landscape architects, planners and other related professions, are expected to offer the community a focus on improving the city.
The free community dinner and visioning session is at 6 p.m. Friday, April 1 and is open to citizens and business owners of Cambridge to help the community itemize and prioritize the city’s needs. (An RSVP is required for the dinner).
The MDT will also take tours, hold small-group discussions and hear from organizations throughout Friday. Design team members will then take all of what they’ve heard and learned about Cambridge’s history, tourism, parks, transportation and other factors, to develop a plan for the region’s future.
The MDT visit culminates at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at the Hardy Center as planners unveil drawings, maps and future plans from the information they gathered. The event is free and open to the public.
The weekend serves a greater purpose as well, City Administrator Lynda Woulfe noted. It will kick off an in-depth comprehensive-planning process for the city of Cambridge.
The success of the visit is dependent on community involvement, Mayor Marlys Palmer said. The greater the attendance for the events, the better the MDT’s final plan will be, Palmer said. “It will kick off the conversation with the community about where we want to see ourselves in five, 10, 20 years,” she said.
The Minnesota Design Team is an AIA Minnesota volunteer committee that started in 1983. Its multidisciplinary teams have worked with more 120 rural communities helping them to improve their built environments.
During the past several months, Downtown Taskforce, residents have been providing their input on the city’s future by submitting interest forms, surveys and pictures with their vision for change.
The MDT professionals will meet with community members and evaluate the good, bad and ugly within the city.
On Saturday, the MDT will provide an oral and visual presentation on their visit. The visual presentation typically consists of a PowerPoint slide show of about 20 poster-sized drawings and diagrams produced by the MDT during the visit.
MDT leaders will keep the presentation posters but will provided an electronic version to the city of Cambridge along with these events being videotaped.