The goal of the Alder street project was simple: increase the housing density in the area around the 24th and Hilyard shopping district. The notion was, with increased density, people would walk to the district, helping the shops their to improve their business and offer more goods and services, without expanding parking.

Although proposed under the trust, in 1996, the first development project, a triplet of lots on 26th and Alder, never reached the stage where the trust could take over.

If taken up again in the future, the goals of this project would instead be accomplshed with a string of project centers, so that traffic would also be reduced by bringing work and housing closer together.