Judge dismisses environmental lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis over its 2040 Plan

A Hennepin County judge on Monday dismissed an environmental lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, paving the way for the city to continue pursuing goals it laid out more than seven years ago for a long-term development plan.

While urbanists praised the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which the city voted on in 2018, for focusing on denser and more affordable housing over traditional single-family zoning, others pushed for an environmental review of the plan, which they argued is likely to cause pollution and depletion of natural resources.

That latter position pushed Smart Growth Minneapolis, an environmental nonprofit, and several other groups to sue the city in 2018 over the 2040 plan.

That change in state law was cited by Judge Joseph R. Klein in his decision Monday to toss out the lawsuit.

“The legislation quite simply makes it impossible for Smart Growth to prevail,” he wrote.

The Star Tribune was unable to reach members of Smart Growth late Monday for comment. In describing the legal battle on its website, the organization said it had presented in court “an engineering analysis showing the harm that would be done by the plan… but the City did not even try to deny that the 2040 Plan would have adverse impacts on the environment or that it had neglected to identify those impacts.”

In an interview Monday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the decision allows the city to continue evolving.