The Problem

Every ten years the Met Council requires cities in the seven-county metro area to submit a comprehensive plan to be used in regional management. The plans must address land use, transportation, water resources, parks and trails, housing, resilience, economic competitiveness and plan implementation, based on Met Council population projections.

City zoning ordinances are then required by law to comply with their comprehensive plans.

Irresponsible planning

The Minneapolis 2040 Plan calls for massive land-use deregulation. It encourages both increased population density—far beyond the Met Council’s population growth projections—and more-intensive use of half (49.7 percent) of the land in Minneapolis. It is far and away the largest densification project ever attempted in all of North America.

Any responsible plan for greater density must anticipate and identify ways to mitigate unintended harm to already fragile urban water, air, wildlife and ecosystems. City-dwellers may live in dense areas, but they still have the right to clean air and water.

But Minneapolis 2040 does not identify the possible negative effects of upzoning on the environment or plan to remediate them. In fact, the Plan allows greater density in flood zones, rail evacuation zones and already polluted areas of the city. It creates the legal right to build virtually anything in Minneapolis without environmental scrutiny.

Worse, by deregulating development, it puts the environment directly at risk through cumulative harm. This is the conclusion of an Initial Environmental Analysis conducted by a highly respected environmental engineering firm, Sunde Engineering.

There is no social justice without environmental justice

Does concern for our environment run counter to racial justice, affordable housing, diversity of housing options in all neighborhoods and the safety and well-being of all city residents? NO. These things are of a piece — we can and should pursue these goals together. We must recognize that pollution affects us all, but that those who will continue to suffer most from the environmental degradation of our city are people of color and poor communities.

Missed opportunity

The City of Minneapolis had the opportunity to create a responsive and responsible 2040 Plan by listening to science and listening to people, but it fell short. While the goals of the Plan are good, the solutions are not science-based and may likely cause irreversible harm (see: Initial Environmental Analysis). Our lawsuit provides the only chance to compel the City to properly environmentally scrutinize its Plan and respond accordingly.