Anyone who thinks residents weren't being heard during the Destination Medical Center planning process should have been listening last week when the project's oversight board met for the first time since officially adopting the development plan.
While noting the primary goal for the eight-member Destination Medical Center Corp. board is to oversee economic development, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, who serves as the board's chairwoman, said it's obvious the community expects more.
"If our mission is truly to be American's city for health, then we have to think about what that means broadly as well as specifically around economic development," she said.
That's something we've been waiting to hear, and so have many others. Smith listed six areas of concern, ranging from energy and sustainability to the overall health of the community, all of which have been repeatedly raised by the public during the planning process.
On Thursday, Smith told the board the concerns could help shape its agenda in the next year as it oversees the first steps of development. Board members immediately voiced support for the approach. That support ranged from RT Ryback's pitch to research a district energy concept to Jim Campbell's interest in looking at affordable housing needs.
While Smith noted during an earlier meeting with the Post-Bulletin Editorial Board that all concerns raised by the public can't be solved by the DMCC board, she said she thinks its members, as well as the city and Mayo Clinic, are interested in helping to ensure the questions are asked and answered as the process unfolds.
Newly named Economic Development Agency Executive Director Lisa Clarke echoed the sentiment Thursday. "Because the plan was approved, it doesn't mean that engagement with the Rochester community and the state and the region is going to stop now — actually quite the opposite," she said. "I think we will be engaging in a very different way as we move from planning into implementation."
We hope that engagement continues to evolve as community groups step up to address concerns raised through the planning process. Discussions in the last year have already spurred positive results, and we expect more will follow. As Dave Ferber of the Salvation Army noted during the April 23 DMCC public hearing: "We believe we will thrive on the generosity of the people benefiting from this plan."
We see Smith's stance for monitoring the six specific areas of concern as echoing Ferber's thought, and many of the DMCC board members, as well as Clarke, seemed in agreement. They noted a desire to ensure future work plans for economic development include information other potential community impacts.
We hope the commitment remains in place as the 20-year DMC development continues. Two decades is a long time to maintain focus in a society of shifting priorities, but we believe the DMCC board has identified a list of six priorities that will remain crucial for Rochester and the rest of Southeast Minnesota well beyond the completion of DMC effort.
By identifying them and voicing a commitment to these areas in the first days of the plan's implementation, the path is set to grow the economy while also finding community benefits in many other areas.
And it sends a powerful message: The community is being heard.
