Eden Prairie teen wins national planning group’s essay contest

Blake High School senior Sarah Schewe admits that before she wrote her essay, “Affordable Housing Plan for Eden Prairie,” she knew very little about community planning.

Turns out she is a quick study.

Schewe’s 1,500-word essay won her first prize in the American Planning Association’s (APA) 2006-07 high school essay contest: a $5,000 scholarship to the college of her choice. The judges chose her essay among 200 submitted.

The APA challenged high school students to develop a proposal for affordable housing on a five-acre site in their community. The proposal had to address a variety of factors, including demographic trends, type of housing, transportation options and current zoning. The proposal also had to address how it was a better use of the land than a handful of other competing proposals.

Award-winning essayist Sarah Schewe, Eden Prairie, will be taking a year off between high school and her freshman year at Dartmouth – first to work in Africa and then to study in Paris.

Schewe’s plan includes duplex multi-family housing with 25% designated as affordable and the lower-level units accessible to people with disabilities. The site includes a co-op day care, a community garden and preservation of an existing wetland.

Although she is Internet-savvy, Schewe said she was surprised at how many resources she was able to find online. She pored over Eden Prairie’s current comprehensive plan and zoning regulations, gathered demographic data from the Metropolitan Council and U.S. Census, and searched other sources for relevant information.

Another big lesson was that “you can’t just think about affordable housing,” Schewe said. “You have to think about what the housing needs to be near.” For example, to be practical for people with lower incomes, the site needs to be close to jobs and good transportation, she said.

Schewe is a big fan of Eden Prairie, and has watched it grow since her family moved there 14 years ago. “This is a very well-planned city,” she said. “Every house is within walking distance of a park, and the city has preserved a variety of different kinds of parks and open space.” In 2005, Eden Prairie residents passed a levy referendum dedicated to open space preservation.

Schewe will be taking a year off between high school graduation and her first year of college at Dartmouth. She will spend the first half of the year working in Africa, perhaps Tanzania, and the second half attending Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. She plans to major in anthropology at Dartmouth and perhaps, she said, in public policy as well.

Ann Beckman, manager of regional system planning and growth strategy for the Metropolitan Council, said that she is impressed with Schewe’s research. “I hope she decides to serve on a city planning commission in the near future,” Beckman said.