Our Work
The City of Minneapolis is embarking on a massive upzoning project without assessing its environmental impact.
The Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan opens the door to unlimited development. Such deregulation will have a disastrous cumulative effect on the environment: That is the conclusion of Sunde Engineering, a highly regarded civil and environmental engineering firm that Smart Growth Minnesota asked to analyze the plan.
A citizen-sponsored environmental lawsuit
Smart Growth Minneapolis (SGM) asked the City to study the plan’s environmental effects voluntarily, as other cities have. (Moorhead, Minn., recently conducted an environmental review of development under its comprehensive plan. Seattle similarly conducted a study of its much smaller-scale comprehensive plan, which affected only six percent of the city.)
But Minneapolis refused our request and approved and enacted its 2040 Plan, assuring that virtually no Minneapolis development would be subject to mandatory environmental review.
So, on December 3, 2018, on the basis of our engineering assessment, SGM sued the City under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA). Two co-plaintiffs joined SGM: Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis and Minnesota Citizens for the Protection of Migratory Birds.
It's the law.
Every citizen has a right to environmental protection. MERA establishes the right of every Minnesotan to the protection, preservation and enhancement of air, water, land and other natural resources located within the state.
Importantly, it gives every Minnesota citizen the right to sue to protect these rights.
MERA requires
- The plaintiff to provide enough scientific evidence to show that environmental harm will likely be caused by the comprehensive plan.
- The defendant to prove that their plan will not harm the environment.