At Steinbach City Council’s SPC meeting on Tuesday evening, Strong Towns Steinbach presented to council their thoughts on ways to make Steinbach a more “sustainable, vibrant, and equitable community”. 

Strong Towns is an advocacy group based in Brainerd, Minnesota, hoping to make cities safe, livable, and inviting.  

The Strong Towns organization is based on the book "Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity" by Charles Marohn, an American civil engineer and urban planner.   

Their mission says they "seek to replace America’s post-war pattern of development, the Suburban Experiment, with a pattern of development that is financially strong and resilient".  

Strong Towns Steinbach talked to council about some of their main initiatives, hoping to have their ideas explored and considered by council to incorporate into the future of Steinbach. 

One of these initiatives is to improve Steinbach’s active transport infrastructure.

Strong Towns Steinbach is hoping that council make Steinbach more bike and pedestrian friendly, as they say car-pedestrian and car-bike near-misses are common. 

They want bike paths to be integrated into a network with good path-to-path and path-to-road connections. 

“Today, in Steinbach, citizens who do not own or cannot operate a car are severely disadvantaged relative to citizens who can access and drive cars,” says Strong Towns Steinbach. “Car-only access is a form of inequity that discriminates against the young, the elderly, the physically challenged, and the working poor for whom cars are not an option.”  

Another initiative they mentioned is reducing parking requirements, as they believe that room could be used for things such as extra dwelling units. 

They say reducing parking mandates would help densify downtown and incentivize active transportation. 

“Because of the City of Steinbach’s CBD and CBD Transitional Zone containing almost everything a person needs within walking distance, we believe it would be in the best interest of the City to significantly reduce and preferably remove the parking requirements within these two zones.” 

They add that a common problem for cyclists downtown is the lack of bicycle parking. 

“It is not uncommon on a summer day to see a dozen bicycles locked to trees or lamp posts on Main Street, simply because there are no proper bike racks to park in.” 

Strong Towns Steinbach also says that council should consider reducing parking stall requirements for assisted-living units. 

“Car ownership is less prevalent for these populations and the savings will encourage more units to be built.” 

A big focus of their presentation was encouraging densification and walkability.  

They used a website to find a value map of Steinbach, which assesses values per square meter of property. 

Photo credit: urbangeodesign.com Photo credit: urbangeodesign.com 

Strong Towns Steinbach says that properties with more parking spaces have a lower taxable value per square meter. 

“Parts of Steinbach that are dense and walkable significantly outperform those designed specifically for car trips. The difference is big and the potential impact on future City finances is equally big.”

Strong Towns Steinbach hopes to work alongside Steinbach City Council moving forward to continue sharing their ideas on how to help improve the City.