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I form of housing,_ eeRqbiRed VOith fUFther street • idei;i;g—te reduEe th-pedestrian connectivity of 2 neighborhoods was reduced. 3 Most homes within the urban areas of Pequot Lakes are now independent of their neighboring dwellings, a pattern 4 that creates patches of both value and blight. Multi-family apartment buildings out-of-scale with the surrounding 5 I housing was were also built during this period. Redevelopment, except in rare cases, is non-existent or the purview 6 of government, despite the fact that the largest amount of public capital investment in infrastructure serves these 7 properties. 8 What has happened in the urban parts of Pequot Lakes is similar to what has happened in small-town 9 neighborhoods across the country.What our original homes lacked in size and scale,the original builders made up 10 for in design. Building neighborhoods on a human scale enhanced the public realm and ensured that the houses 11 provided value, and retained value, more than the sum of their parts. 12 As the City changed orientation from neighborhood design to a more auto-centric, independent style of living,the 13 City attracted some short-term investment but ultimately lost out to properties outside the City that provided 14 even more independence and greater auto accessibility.The more the City"invested"to increase auto-accessibility 15 I in its neighborhoods, the more it devahled encouraged development outside of those neighborhoods__ and the 16 heusiRg that was theFE.Today investments in housing improvements are random and almost always out of scale or 17 incompatible with adjacent development. 18 Pequot Lakes cannot be successful over the long-term when its lowest value properties border the most expensive 19 infrastructure investments in the city. Right now,these areas do not attract significant private-sector investment. 20 A city with Pequot Lakes' parks, ball fields, public access to a lake, downtown full of vitality, well-located school 21 property, low crime rates, local churches and opportunities for an engaging civic life should not be experiencing 22 stagnation and decline of its urban housing stock.The City is built on a framework of neighborhood design.Trying 23 to adopt a suburban development pattern on a traditional framework has made Pequot Lakes' housing stock less 24 competitive. 25 For the City of Pequot Lakes to improve its housing-which is essential if there is to be any sustained, long-term 26 growth for the area-it needs to restore its neighborhoods.This means returning to a pattern of development that 27 emphasizes sound site design, proper building placement, structure compatibility and the interconnectivity of 28 neighborhoods. 29 SIDEBAR ON NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN 30 Neighborhood design is the historic development pattern that Pequot Lakes was originally built with. The unit of 31 development in neighborhood design pattern is the block. With blocks there can be a conscious effort to ensure 32 the pattern of development is cohesively scaled. In a traditional pattern, a large apartment building would not be 33 placed next to a small single-family house, for instance. A block increment also assists in the organization of the 34 public space.The interaction between the private realm and the public realm can be coded on an intimate scale to 35 provide lots of flexibility for property owners while ensuring that each new development adds to the overall value 36 of the public space. 37 The value-added component is critical to attracting investments to downtown Pequot Lakes. Streets that are built 38 on a corridor approach, where streets are designed to exclusively or predominantly accommodate cars, lack the 39 value added component. Because the neighborhood is not experienced on a human level but instead from inside a 71 Page