Minneapolis Park Board passes redesign of Hiawatha Golf Course

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board passed a plan to cut Hiawatha Golf Course in half from 18 holes to nine, among other changes.

RELATED: Minneapolis Park Board reconsiders reducing Hiawatha Golf Course to 9 holes

The Hiawatha Golf Course Area Master Plan passed by a 6-3 vote during Wednesday’s meeting. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey still has the option to veto it, but he would need to persuade a Park Board member who voted in the majority to flip their vote.

Board members argue the plan would allow space for environmental changes to improve flooding issues — the golf course needs hundreds of millions of gallons of water to be pumped into nearby Lake Hiawatha each year to stay dry, according to a Park Board report.

However, not everyone is on board.

Some members of the Black community are against the change because Hiawatha was the first Minneapolis golf course to end segregation and allowed Black players.

RELATED: Hiawatha golf clubhouse could soon be named after civil rights pioneer

As previously reported, another group is also pushing for the course to become part of the National Register of Historic Places, which would create a major hurdle for the plan.

“Looking at it as a compromise where both sides are giving and taking, I think that is really important,” said Marisa Anywaush, a Minneapolis resident.

RELATED: Minneapolis Park Board moves toward final vote on future of Hiawatha Golf Course

“At the end of the day, the quality and character endures. And I would say, what we can say, unequivocally, is that a nine-hole course is not an 18-hole course. And taking an 18-hole course and making it a nine-hole course that’s listed on the National Register as an 18-hole course is a tough hill to climb to look at that kind of seismic change,” said Charles Birnbaum, the president and CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation.