screenshot of 252 from google maps street view

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is moving forward with destructive plans to expand Highway 252 in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, doubling traffic in environmental justice communities and demolishing dozens of homes and businesses. 

On Monday, October 28, MnDOT held a virtual Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting for the Highway 252/I-94 expansion project. The PAC includes elected and appointed officials from MnDOT, the State of Minnesota, FHWA, Hennepin County, City of Brooklyn Park, City of Brooklyn Center, City of Minneapolis and Metropolitan Council. The committee was created to provide feedback on various stages of the project. 

Here are five key takeaways from the meeting.

1. The meeting did not go well for MnDOT, and your voices are making a difference.

PAC meetings often fly under the radar. MnDOT schedules them during work hours inaccessible to most people, with little advance notice. As a result, most PAC members don’t attend. However, that wasn’t the case for this meeting. There was a noticeable increase in PAC members at the Oct. 28 meeting, who had clearly started paying attention following the hundreds of emails and phone calls they’ve received in recent weeks about the project.

Nearly all PAC members in attendance spoke up to share their concerns about the disapproval of the project and an engagement process that has felt like a sham. Brooklyn Center Council Member Dan Jerzak mentioned that he has received thousands of comments from constituents who oppose the freeway project and only a handful from those who support it. Senator John Hoffman, who represents Brooklyn Park and other northwest suburbs and once supported the expansion, said his opinion on this project has changed. He expressed frustration that MnDOT is ignoring the concerns of Brooklyn Center and impacted residents and that non-freeway options should be studied. Other PAC members who spoke up and shared concerns included Bethany Turnwall from Minneapolis Council Member Jeremiah Ellison’s office and State Representative Esther Agbaje.

2. MnDOT continues to ignore community concerns.

MnDOT tried to manage the public backlash by emphasizing the agency’s commitment to mitigating impacts and citing how their evaluation process considers equity impacts. However, actions speak louder than words. The meeting highlighted how MnDOT and its consultants are simply using the same playbook used to justify demolishing communities of color for freeways just over a half-century ago.

MnDOT suppressed public access to the meeting by removing a public comment period that traditionally has allowed community members to respond to the conversation and directly address staff and elected officials. Staff also used leading questions to manufacture community consent for a new freeway. For example, during the meeting, project consultants summarized community responses to the question, “Should the freeway go above or below intersecting streets?” The only options that community members were allowed to choose from were “above,” “below,” or “no opinion.” This survey structure made it impossible for anyone who opposed a freeway altogether to have their opinion recorded. Not surprisingly, the “no opinion” option scored highest in all but one of MnDOT’s community engagement events, indicating that residents were hesitant to voice support for either freeway design.

MnDOT’s presentation downplayed the severe community impacts of the project. Project staff referred to homes and businesses that would be destroyed by the freeway as “relocations” and danced around the subject of air pollution and environmental justice. MnDOT claimed that equity will be a core consideration as the process continues. However, the department ignored its own Equity and Health Assessment of the project, which found that the expansion will disproportionately harm communities of color and recommended that non-freeway alternatives be considered. MnDOT has also ignored requests by Brooklyn Center city leadership to study non-freeway options that improve safety without widening the roadway’s footprint. 
MnDOT justified eliminating non-freeway project options by claiming that the options didn’t meet the project’s purpose and need, which identified safety as a key goal. However, this tactic of classifying freeway expansions as “safety improvements” is a classic strategy used by the State Department of Transportation across the country to justify highway expansion.

3. Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves continues to call out MnDOT’s phony evaluation process.

Throughout this process, Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves has been a vocal critic of MnDOT and a fierce advocate for her community. During the PAC meeting, Mayor Graves called out how MnDOT has ignored Brooklyn Center’s demands for non-freeway project options and is preventing residents in the state’s most racially diverse city from having a meaningful say over a project that will impact their community for decades.

4. Brooklyn Park elected officials continue to support the expansion.

Contrary to Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park elected officials were conspicuously absent or silent during the meeting. Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston did not attend. Neither did Brooklyn Park’s State Representative and Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman.

Two of the three cities impacted by this project, Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, have publicly shared their opposition to the highway 252 and I-94 expansion project. However, elected officials in Brooklyn Park continue to quietly support a new freeway. 

The lone representative from Brooklyn Park at the meeting, Council Member XP Lee, was the only PAC member to support the project publicly, saying “The Brooklyn Park City Council is mostly supportive of moving forward toward a freeway design.” Council Member XP Lee went on to say that his major concern is the aesthetics of the over/underpasses.

It is concerning that Brooklyn Park elected officials continue to double down on their support for the 252 expansion project, as dozens of community members are set to lose their homes and businesses. They have been silent as Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, and North Minneapolis community members have voiced concern over demolishing homes and doubling traffic in environmental justice communities.

5. There is still time to stop this project.

Growing public awareness and community opposition are putting MnDOT expansion plans in jeopardy. Cities will not officially vote to approve the project plans until 2027. If elected officials, particularly city leaders in Brooklyn Park, publicly state their opposition to the project, MnDOT will be forced to halt their process and allow residents to consider better solutions.

You can take action by attending an upcoming MnDOT meeting and by contacting decision-makers.

Take Action

Contact Decision-Makers

Brooklyn Center

Brooklyn Park

Upcoming Meetings

Virtual Public Meeting

Wednesday, November 13, 6PM
Register for the meeting (via Zoom)

Brooklyn Center Open House

Cohen Room at Brooklyn Center Community Center
6301 Shingle Creek Parkway
December 11, 5:30-7:30PM