Anti-Displacement Efforts

Preventing displacement and maximizing benefits to community

The METRO Blue Line Extension creates exciting opportunities to advance community visions for investment and economic development that can help residents and businesses build wealth in place and improve quality of life. Major infrastructure investments can also raise concerns about displacement of residents and businesses. Project partners hear these concerns and take them seriously. We are committed to working together with communities to proactively prevent displacement and maximize the many benefits that light rail can bring.

These are critical and complex issues that require a wide variety of partners coming together in good faith to think and act creatively.​ Work is already underway to identify existing resources and tools that can support businesses and residents today. Stakeholders and partners will also work over the coming months to identify additional needs and gaps, implement strategies that support equitable development and community wealth-building, and address pressures that can lead to displacement.

Draft Coordinated Action Plan

After years of group discussions, community meetings, and outreach around the topic of preventing displacement and maximizing benefits to community, Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council are working with partners and community to put together a detailed roadmap to help our region navigate the human side of building a light rail route.   

The Draft Coordinated Action Plan outlines a wide variety of strategies and policies, under 13 key topics to advance this work:   

  • Relocation  
  • Environmental Justice  
  • Cultural Placemaking and Station Architecture  
  • Access To Places During Construction and Operations   
  • Infrastructure Improvements  
  • ROW Acquisition  
  • Accountability Metrics  
  • Engagement Plan  
  • Community Ownership/Land Subsidy  
  • Development And Preservation  
  • Business Support  
  • Safety Design  
  • Workforce Planning and Recruitment   

The Draft Coordinated Action Plan will become available for viewing and feedback summer 2024.  

Learn more about the anti-displacement initiative

Anti-Displacement Report

After meeting for more than a year, the Anti-Displacement Work Group published their recommendations in May 2023 for public review. The recommendations are focused on outcomes, and themes include:

  • Transparency and accountability
  • Community ownership and empowerment in decision-making
  • Protecting and enhancing the rich culture of the corridor
  • Supporting residents and business owners to stay in place along the corridor

An Anti-Displacement Work Group was led by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) in partnership with Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council. The work group's 26 members included residents and business owners in the area, people with lived experience of displacement, and people from the philanthropic community and government agencies.

The Anti-Displacement Work Group began seeking input on the development of the workgroup in Fall 2021. The application period opened in December and was promoted widely to corridor communities. More than 60 applicants were interviewed before final selections were made by a committee that included CURA and project staff, as well as corridor community and business representatives.

In addition to monthly public meetings, the work group hosted four day-long workshops between May 2022 and February 2023. Each workshop focused on a single topic or activity:

  • Lessons from the existing Blue and Green Line projects
  • Housing and cultural displacement
  • Business displacement
  • Finalizing recommendations

Review workshop materials

Resolution

In June 2023, the Corridor Management Committee voted to receive CURA's report and committed to working together to advance the recommendations. Read the resolution (PDF).