Judge Rules Minneapolis' Zoning Reforms Are Getting Too Much Housing BuiltPlus: Political campaigns will have to disclose if they use AI in their ads, the effort to rehabilitate rent control rumbles on, and more...
CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI
9.7.2023
Environmentalists have managed to reverse America's leading "yes in my backyard" (YIMBY) success story. A Minnesota judge ruled this week that Minneapolis must halt the implementation of a wide range of zoning reforms until it performs an environmental analysis of the increased home construction and urban density they allow.
"The record supports the inescapable conclusion that [the city's zoning changes] would have such potential for significant environmental effects that it is likely to affect the environment materially adversely, causing irreparable harm," wrote Hennepin County Judge Joseph R. Klein in a Tuesday decision.
Changes the city will now have to pump the brakes on include its first-in-the-nation abolition of single-family-only zoning, the ending of minimum parking requirements for new residential buildings, and the legalization of larger apartment buildings in more areas of the city.
These were passed by the Minneapolis City Council back in December 2018 as part of its lengthy Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan, which had the express purpose of boosting housing supply in order to bring housing prices down.
That potential for additional housing construction was a bug, not a feature, for a number of the city's environmentalist organizations. Shortly before the approval of the Minneapolis 2040 plan, they sued the city on the grounds it had failed to study the environmental impacts of more people and more homes as required by the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act (MEPA).
Plaintiffs include Smart Growth Minneapolis and Minnesota Citizens for the Protection of Migratory Birds.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2023/09/07/judge-rules-minneapolis-zoning-reforms-are-getting-too-much-housing-built/
