Ramsey Town Center Master Plan
Ramsey, Minnesota

The City of Ramsey is located halfway between Minneapolis and St. Cloud, along U.S. Highway 10. Ramsey Town Center LLC, a private firm, worked closely with the city, residents, business owners and a variety of regulatory agencies to develop a new urban center in this exurban setting. CLOSE Landscape Architecture+ and Elness Swenson Graham Architects were retained to create a master plan that captures the qualities of traditional communities while incorporating contemporary ideas.

The emerging downtown is designed to integrate with the surrounding city rather than isolate from it. When completed, it will have a true mix of uses including civic, entertainment, shopping, and more than 2,000 units of new housing, with a range of types. A system of parks and open spaces partially completed, will link people with their destinations in this 322-acre development, and connect to other city and regional resources. Stormwater will be handled, treated and sometimes stored on site with a variety of approaches that promote infiltration and cleansing of water before it moves off-site to the Mississippi River. A balanced road network and local and regional transit will provide a range of transportation options. The Ramsey Town Center master plan strives to achieve balance between the car and the rest of our daily lives, by bringing the land uses close together, creating "density by design" in housing and retail districts, and bringing civic life back to the place of commerce and recreation. In 2005, this project won a Merit Award from the ASLA and a national Honor Award from the A.I.A.