Voice Concerns about Parking-Heavy Project in Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis is planning to expand of one of its maintenance facilities in South Minneapolis, the Hiawatha Maintenance Facility (also known as the Roof Depot site). This project as proposed fails Minneapolis on climate and transportation commitments.

The project site is right next to the Midtown Greenway, the METRO Blue Line, and the future B Line—but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the project. Right now the site plans propose nearly 400 parking spaces for personal vehicles, and because of the combined pressure of these personal vehicles and hundreds more maintenance vehicles, includes a costly new 422-stall parking ramp.

The project is going through an environmental review and is open for comment until 4:00 PM on Thursday, March 25. Comment now to demand the City live up to its climate and transportation goals by completing a full environmental study that includes analysis of the project’s climate emissions.

We do need maintenance facilities to keep our city running. But we shouldn’t continue to subsidize climate-polluting private vehicles—especially at a site that is so close to high-quality transit, biking, and walking.

Tell the City you don’t support the project in its current form, and request that the City complete an Environmental Impact Study to further understand the climate impacts of this development and address these concerns.