Judge orders Minneapolis to halt implementation of 2040 plan
MINNEAPOLIS -- A judge has ordered the city of Minneapolis to cease implementation of its 2040 plan, a 20-year plan for how the city will change and grow that addresses housing, transportation and more.
Environmentalist and conservationist groups first sued the city in 2018 to stop the plan's implementation. Hennepin County Judge Joseph Klein ruled Wednesday in favor of Smart Growth Minneapolis, the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis and Minnesota Citizens for the Protection of Migratory Birds on Wednesday.
The groups cited the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act, and alleged that the city's plan "is likely to cause the pollution, impairment, or destruction of the air, water, land or other natural resources located within the state." In particular, the suit argued the plan's elimination of single-family zoning would increase population density, which would in turn increase traffic and noise, decrease air quality and green space and negatively impact local wildlife and water quality, among other things.
The city argued that the groups failed to show undisputedly that the 2040 plan would create these environmental impacts, and that, in fact, "there is no evidence of harm to the environment caused by 'a Plan,'" only by the actual work implemented in service of that plan.
The judge found that the groups "have sufficiently demonstrated that protectable natural resources are at stake" and that "a full build-out under the 2040 Plan, a plan that has no fixed duration, will cause or is likely to cause material adverse effects to the environment."
The Minneapolis City Council gave final approval to the 2040 plan in 2019, and the city began its implementation in 2020. Its stated goal was to "guide decision-making that affects the long-term future of our city as it relates to the built, natural, and economic environment."