Community Planning & Urban Design

The built environment shapes experience and quality of life for a community's residents and visitors. Places and spaces where people feel welcome and comfortable, and that are interesting, safe and vital invite people to connect with each other and build the framework of social connectivity, health and wellness, and prosperity and success.

Learn more about our placemaking approach here >, and check out the list below for some of our recent community planning and urban design projects.

Grand Forks ND 2045 Land Use Plan Update

The City of Grand Forks in coordination with the Grand Forks - East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) recently updated their long-range Land Use Plan. The plan is a guiding document for how the City will manage growth and development over the next 30 years.

Community visioning and engagement was a key part of the plan update. To better reflect community needs and desires for the future of Grand Forks, CDG used interactive in-person activities and innovative online tools to expand engagement and participation in the process.

Community Visioning for the WSCO / District 3 Plan

In spring of 2011, the West Side Community Organization (WSCO) began a process to develop a new Community Plan for District 3. Discovering and developing the vision that would guide the policies included in the Plan was the first step in this process.

Community Design Group was hired to design and implement a visioning process to:

Edina GrandView District Development Framework Plan

Edina's GrandView District is one of the largest redevelopment sites within the city's boundaries, and is also an historically-important commercial and civic location. Many changes in the District’s land uses prompted the initiation of a community-led process to plan for its future - in consultation with residents, property owners, business owners and commercial property owners, to produce a guide for redevelopment.

The 38th Street and Chicago Avenue Small Area / Corridor Framework Plan

Working closely with four of the most economically, ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhoods in Minneapolis (with a combined population of 23,000 people), CDG developed a placemaking and economic development blueprint offering specific guidance for supporting the revitalization of important neighborhood corridors and commercial nodes.

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