Burnsville Housing and Commercial Needs Assessment Study
Photo: davumaya, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Spencer served as Data Scientist on this engagement for Stantec, authoring the full study, managing the City of Burnsville client relationship, and presenting the findings at public meetings. The engagement combined economic, demographic, and market analysis across both housing and commercial property types, examining Burnsville's ownership, rental, affordable, and senior housing markets alongside its industrial, office, and retail inventories.
The study found that more than half of Burnsville's renter households are cost burdened, with rents outpacing income growth faster than in most comparable Twin Cities suburbs, and that demand is strongest for entry-level ownership product — condominiums, townhomes, and smaller single-family homes — that the market isn't currently supplying. A detailed housing gap analysis identified the rental market as most underserved at price points affordable to households earning $50,000 or less, and found an aging population increasingly "over-housed" in larger single-family homes relative to the community's shrinking household sizes.
The study recommended a toolkit of strategies to close these gaps, including a local housing trust fund, inclusionary zoning, and preservation of naturally-occurring affordable housing, alongside commercial recommendations centered on the city's largest redevelopment opportunity: reimagining the Burnsville Center mall site as a mixed-use hub blending retail, housing, and emerging uses like senior living or recreational facilities.