Lake Elmo, which is trying to preserve open space and large-lot development, has resisted Met Council efforts to allow more density. But City Council Member Steve DeLapp praised the design study, saying, "It will help us continue in the direction we think is responsible."

He was referring to the idea of allowing developments with housing clusters surrounded by open space.

But for all its rural nature, Lake Elmo also has a small downtown, and Calthorpe's Tim Rood said that providing a village green near City Hall a few blocks away, across Hwy. 5, could help "create a neighborhood that felt like part of the village."

A landscaped median at the intersection of the highway and Lake Elmo Avenue also "would enhance the community's character," Calthorpe said.

In North St. Paul, known to motorists for the snowman that stands more than 40 feet tall along Hwy. 36, Calthorpe recommended redevelopment to provide a gateway to the community's downtown. The consultants suggest updating Margaret Street, a gap-toothed mixture of stores and businesses with varying setbacks and architecture, between the snowman on Hwy. 36 and 7th Avenue. City officials already are seeking a grant to speed a project to put the highway below grade at Margaret Street to reunite the city, which the highway splits.

City Manager Wally Wysopal said he welcomes the Calthorpe study because the city has no planning department. The suggestions will "help generate discussion" and provide negotiating points with developers, he said.

Although he said North St. Paul has "been living new urbanism for 100 years" -- a reference to planners' jargon for walkable, neighborly communities -- the town is "a great example" for communities where "new urbanism needs some boosting."

Across the St. Croix River in New Richmond, Wis., Robert Barbian, planning and economic development manager, said his community realizes it's in the path of growth, regardless of whether the bridge is built.

The growth could be significant. Rood said that 34,000 jobs and 50,000 households could be created in the six target communities during the next 20 years.

But "not everyone wants a half-acre lot to take care of," he said.

That's one reason Calthorpe said an obsolete mill site in New Richmond could be converted to denser housing. If the town's middle school ends up being relocated, its current building could be converted to other uses too, the report says.

"Buildings with residential or office uses above retail stores can bring new housing opportunities to the downtown area and help to activate the area with pedestrian traffic," the study says.

Barbian said such suggestions are valuable to identify "avenues that can be a good mix for both the long-term interests of the city and the short-term financial interests of the developers."

Calthorpe also is working separately on development ideas for the areas around proposed light-rail stations along the Hiawatha Avenue corridor in Minneapolis.

In both cases, its consultants have led workshops to gather residents' and officials' ideas about what's important. The recommendations reflect founder Peter Calthorpe's advocacy of clustered development that encourages walking and transit, discourages but does not prohibit cars and features natural amenities.

Mondale said the development suggestions "give residents a whole array of choices" about how to manage growth.

"We can't be unrealistic and force communities to do what is not in their own best interest," he said, but the council can help provide incentives and tools "to give the public what they want."

Such an approach is political salve on what sometimes has been a raw relationship between the council and communities.

Oak Park Heights Mayor David Schaaf said the study "is one of the single most positive things the Metropolitan Council has done in my memory."