Minneapolis pushes pause on 2040 plan, reverts to 2030 land use ordinances for now

By KSTP

The Minneapolis skyline is seen from a tower camera on July 29, 2023. (KSTP-TV)

Minneapolis officials say they will revert to 2030 land use ordinances after a Hennepin County District Court issued an order barring parts of the Minneapolis comprehensive 2040 plan.

Although the city filed an appeal, an update on its website said Minneapolis will “reinstate for prospective enforcement the residential development portions of the City’s 2030 comprehensive plan (‘Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth’) and the pre-December, 2018 land use ordinances to the extent they relate to the ‘scope and degree’ of residential development identified by the District court.”

That means development projects that were started under 2040 guidelines will now have to adhere to guidelines under the 2030 plan.

The lawsuit stems from claims that the city’s 2040 Plan, which took effect in 2020, violates state environmental law.

This comes after the judge told city officials they had 60 days to revert to its 2030 Plan two months ago.

The plan eliminated the city’s single-family residential zoning district, which covered roughly 50% of Minneapolis’s 57.49 square miles, and authorized a full build-out of almost 150,000 new residential units during the plan’s duration.

Environmental groups challenged the plan, claiming the city didn’t adequately analyze its likely effects on the environment.

In June 2022, Klein agreed and ordered the city to stop implementing the 2040 Plan but a short time later allowed the city to continue using the 2040 Plan’s standards while the appeal process played out. However, in December, the Minnesota Court of Appeals sided with the environmental groups and the Minnesota Supreme Court declined a request for review by the city.