Advancing the Minneapolis 2040 blueprint will rest on the same community engagement that helped it get passed by city council When the Minneapolis city council approved a new comprehensive plan for denser development last month local leaders celebrated the progressive blueprint for future growth. The initiative turned Twin Cities planning into a national news story??the most wonderful plan of the year,? ?Minnesota nice in action??and made zoning history with a bold gesture that frankly acknowledged the history of discrimination tied to land-use policy.
The media attention before and after the holidays has given proponents and planners a chance to ?enjoy the afterglow,? says Heather Worthington, the city?s director of long-range planning and a co-author of the Minneapolis 2040 plan. Cities large and small from North Carolina to California have contacted Minneapolis officials to learn more about the set of 14 policy proposals which would upzone nearly the entire city, allowing taller buildings with more units to be built in areas that previously only contained single-family homes.
But despite the accolades, Worthington and her colleagues are well aware of the work that now needs to be done to realize the plan?s vision.
?It?s not enough to write a plan like this, it?s also about doing the difficult policy work and development,? she says. ?That?s the phase we?re in, looking out for 2019.?

First day in Minneapolis, already seeing great @MoreNeighbors signs in the wild...