Achieving a substantial milestone, the METRO Blue Line light rail transit (LRT) extension project published a 2,800-page Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) on June 14 and initiated a request for municipal consent July 26. The light rail project will bring additional transportation to an underserved region and provide much needed investments to communities. This vital transit project won’t be completed without compromises, but solidifying anti-displacement will help secure environment justice.
This $3.4 billion light rail extension will extend the Blue Line 13.4 miles northwest from Target Field station in downtown Minneapolis to the communities of North Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park. When the extension opens for service, it will be part of a complete Blue Line running from the Mall of America to Brooklyn Park. Using post-COVID data, the extension itself is projected to add up to 13,000 daily trips. Total Blue Line ridership is projected to climb to 30,000 daily trips, restoring Blue Line ridership to pre-COVID levels. These ridership and cost estimates confirm that the project is competitive for federal funding which could pay nearly half of the project’s cost.
The release of the SDEIS document is a pivotal step in evaluating potential social, economic and environmental impacts that may occur during the design, construction and operation of the Blue Line Extension. The document also outlines potential measures to avoid or reduce those negative impacts.
From July 26 to October 10, 2024, cities along the route will start a process known as “municipal consent,” which will include a local review and feedback regarding physical design elements. Community members and corridor cities will be able to review preliminary design plans and comment on the transit extension project to advocate for changes and refinements to the physical design. Corridor city governments then vote on whether to approve or reject the project design. If a city doesn’t vote to approve the design plans, “they have to describe what changes to the physical design of the project need to be made for their approval,” according to a Metropolitan Council web page.
A MinnPost article covering the SDEIS document highlights expected impacts like Hennepin County and the Met Council purchasing 37 properties, displacing occupants from 36 of them. Minneapolis has the highest share of relocation impacts, with 34 buildings taken and 27 occupants needing to relocate.
Some other negative potential impacts include increased noise and vibrations, exposing contaminated soils at 433 locations and reduced parking. Traffic may also “exceed capacity” at over nine intersections when built. Under a no-build alternative scenario, most of these intersections are anticipated to “exceed capacity,” according to 2040 projections. Enhanced bike and transit infrastructure are among the potential benefits.
The Alliance’s Blue Line Coalition, composed of a diverse number of member organizations — including ones representing neighborhood residents — recently held an Actualizing Equity virtual event regarding the Blue Line Extension’s SDEIS. While members support the light rail extension project, they voiced some concerns. Some worry that communities like the Heritage Park and Harrison neighborhoods, and the city of Golden Valley could be overlooked in the project process. This stems from the 2021 realignment away from Olson Memorial Highway (Highway 55) and the BNSF rail corridor, which resulted in the extension no longer directly serving these areas.
This worry comes as North Minneapolis communities have a lower than average life expectancy and high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases. Contributing factors to these health issues include exposure of dust and air pollutants originating from industrial factories, the Hennepin County Recovery Center (HERC), which burns garbage to create electricity, and Interstate 94. That’s on top of underinvestment and historical systemic racism, like redlining. Because of these practices, this region continues to lack basic necessities like affordable groceries, housing opportunities, and adequate transportation. These long-lasting injustices and health effects disproportionately affect low-income and Black, Indigenous, people of color communities living in North Minneapolis. Deeply rooted issues such as these aren’t exclusive to the Minneapolis’ Blue Line Extension alignment but rather exist in many pockets near the transit extension’s corridor.
The cities of Brooklyn Park, Crystal and Robbinsdale, for example, have areas with a high percentage of zero-car households and higher than average cost-burdened households — such that “a household spends more than 30% of its income on housing costs, including mortgage, property tax, home repairs and rent.”
The Blue Line Extension project team is conducting an ongoing environmental justice study area, defined by a one-half-mile buffer around the project alignment. This EJ study area identifies disadvantaged communities and census tracts as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Equitable Transportation Community (ETC) explorer and the Justice40 initiatives (a federal goal, started in 2021, that 40% of overall benefits of certain investments flow to disadvantaged communities marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution).
With the environmental justice study area and anti-displacement, this transit project can break these patterns of injustice and truly be about the people — not the train. As defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmental justice “means the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making and other Federal activities that affect human health and the environment so that people:
- “Are fully protected from disproportionate and adverse human health and environmental effects (including risks) and hazards, including those related to climate change, the cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens, and the legacy of racism or other structural or systemic barriers; and
- “Have equitable access to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment in which to live, play, work, learn, grow, worship, and engage in cultural and subsistence practices.”
The SDEIS commenting period (see details below) is an important opportunity to ensure that voices are heard so negative impacts can be brought into light, mitigated, prevented and be in a way that’s beneficial for communities. This helps ensure that past harms, which we can see with I-94 and Olson Memorial Highway dividing neighborhoods, are not repeated in this project. Following the SDEIS commenting period, municipal consent (also see details below) is another important opportunity to improve the preliminary physical design plans. Some significant barriers still persist for community members to comment, specifically for those who aren’t proficient in English, the terminology used or even what the potential impacts and preliminary designs mean for them.
Current and future anti-displacement efforts, involving affordable housing, infrastructure improvements, relocation, economic vitality, environmental justice, safety design, accountability metrics, community ownership/land subsidy and much more are ways to address complex issues, ease concerns, build wealth and improve the quality of life. The Blue Line light rail extension project still needs your voice to help guide the project along and ensure that it supports the communities it aims to serve.
Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The SDEIS is open for comment through Tuesday, August 6, 2024. Public comments received will inform the Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement (SFEIS), which will outline specific project commitments to address impacts. The final statement is expected to be published in mid-2025, and all comments will be responded to in the statement itself.
View the SDEIS: The SDEIS is available for viewing online on the project website. Printed copies are also available to view at the following locations:
- METRO Blue Line Extension Project Office, 6465 Wayzata Boulevard, Suite 600, St. Louis Park, MN 55426
- Brooklyn Park Library, 8500 W. Broadway Ave., Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
- Rockford Road Library, 6401 N. 42nd Ave., Crystal, MN 55427
- North Regional Library, 1315 Lowry Avenue N., Minneapolis, MN 55411
Again, check out the previously mentioned MinnPost article about the SDEIS for a more digestible evaluation of key impacts.
Comment on the SDEIS:
- Submit a comment online.
- Record your comment by calling the SDEIS project hotline at 612-373-3970.
- Email comments to [email protected] any time during the comment period.
- Provide written comments or a public testimony at the Public Hearing.
In-person public hearings occurred in Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park. Transcripts of the recordings from these hearings are expected to be included with other comments in the Supplemental Final Impact Statement.
Municipal consent: The preliminary physical design commenting period is open through October 10, 2024. Comments can be made by mail, email, public hearing and through an online comment form. Please visit the project website’s municipal consent page for more information.
View the Physical Design Plans: Complete physical design plans can be found at several libraries and the Blue Line Extension project office in St. Louis Park. City specific physical design plans can be found at city halls and libraries. Please visit the project website’s plan documents page for more information.
Hearings on the Physical Design Plans: A joint public hearing by the Metropolitan Council, Hennepin County Board of Commissioners and Hennepin County Regional
Railroad Authority (HCRRA) will be hosted on Monday, August 26, 2024 at the NorthPoint Wellness Conference Center, 1256 Penn Ave. N., Suite 5200 in Minneapolis from 6 to 8 p.m.
Visit the project website’s public hearing’s page for more information on city-specific public hearings.