On Thursday, June 30, the Minneapolis City Council sustained Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of a plan to eliminate parking in favor of a 24-hour bus lane along a stretch of Hennepin Avenue between Douglas Avenue, in Lowry Hill, and Lake Street, in East Isles. The council needed nine votes to override Frey’s veto, but it had only eight.
The mayor’s principal concern was that the plan eliminated all on-street parking permanently, which nearly all businesses along the corridor view as vital for commercial viability. Following the opinion of the recently appointed Director of Public Works Margaret Anderson Kelliher, who previously led the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the mayor supported city staff having the flexibility to balance parking vs. transit lanes with data based on future trends and needs.
The mayor sought a compromise by allowing the city to move forward with a consensus to help businesses that have suffered from the pandemic, civil unrest, inflation and staffing shortages.
Advocates for denying the mayor’s veto said they wanted to reimagine the corridor to make it more friendly for pedestrians, bus riders and cyclists.
They envisioned a future where businesses would be supported by multimodal customers and claimed that there is ample off-street parking, which has been contested by businesses and the Uptown Association.
Prior to Anderson Kelliher’s appointment, Public Works invested $1.25 million in transit planning and $0 on commercial business planning expertise for the Hennepin Avenue Reconstruction Project.
The council is presently developing a compromise on the plan, which will likely return to the City Council for a final vote in August.
The five council members who sustained the mayor’s veto were Lisa Goodman (Ward 7), Emily Koski (Ward 11), Linea Palmisano (Ward 13), Michael Rainville (Ward 3), and LaTrisha Vetaw (Ward 4).
