Blue Line Extension

Project Engagement Update

The METRO Blue Line Extension Project relies on community voices when making decisions about the project. One of the project’s guiding principles is that we move at the speed of trust. Our engagement efforts must be robust, inclusive, and flexible to ensure we have an alignment that provides maximum benefit for the community.

We are currently seeking feedback on potential station locations and visualizations of how LRT could fit into your community. Provide feedback on the interactive map today.

Learn About the Blue Line Extension from Encouraging Leaders

Hennepin County in partnership with the Metropolitan Council has contracted with 14 community-based organization to further project engagement and communications. Learn about the Blue Line Extension from Encouraging Leaders, an organization working to inspire underserved youth and young adults to recognize their inner talents and gain confidence in their ability to shape a positive future for themselves and their community. Click the image below to access the video.

METRO Blue Line Extension Staff in Your Community

At the end of July and early August, project staff hosted community events in each community. For those unable to attend, you can watch a recording of the virtual events on our meetings page. We will also be in community and at virtual events throughout August.  We hope to see you there and look forward to hearing your thoughts:

Preventing displacement, maximizing community benefits of the Blue Line Extension
Partners seeking proposals to lead anti-displacement workgroup

Making sure the Blue Line Extension light rail project benefits corridor residents and businesses is a priority for project partners. This once in a generation investment will connect people to jobs, education, healthcare, and opportunities. It can also drive investment and advance neighborhood visions for community and economic development. These opportunities can invigorate neighborhoods and allow area residents and businesses to build wealth in place. They can also contribute to concerns of displacement.

During our engagement efforts our Community partners have highlighted the potential for displacement as a top priority as planning for the Blue Line Extension continues. Project staff and partners have heard and share this concern.

To address this complex issue and for the first time ever, Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council are convening an Anti-displacement Workgroup that will center community voices and bring together a variety of partners and stakeholders to develop robust anti-displacement strategies for implementation that will help ensure the value of light rail will benefit corridor residents, and minimize physical, cultural, and economic displacement.

To advance this work, BLRT partners released a request for proposals for an individual or organization to convene and coordinate the work of the Anti-displacement Workgroup. Proposals are due July 27, and the group is expected to get to work in September. This work will be ongoing throughout the life of the project and beyond with a focus on both short- and long-term solutions.

Learn more at www.hennepin.us/blrt-anti-displacement

Visit the Hennepin County Supplier Portal to review the RFP and submit a proposal by July 27.

New revised route options for the Blue Line Extension are now available for public input. These routes represent the best apparent options for light rail that connects communities from Minneapolis northwest to Brooklyn Park based on the community input, technical considerations, and past project work. The route is expected to remain the same on the northern end of the line in Brooklyn Park. For the middle section between Brooklyn Park and Robbinsdale, the best option is to move the route from the rail corridor onto Bottineau Boulevard (County Road 81). On the southern end of the corridor, project partners have identified Lowry Avenue and West Broadway as good potential routes to consider.

These revised route options are intended to continue a conversation aimed at identifying a single community-supported route by the end of 2021. This single route option will then be advanced to environmental review and engineering work in the coming years.

The need to find a modified route was announced in summer 2020 because BNSF Railway has remained unwilling to allow LRT to operate on their property as initially planned.

Provide feedback

This is your light rail line, and your input is critical to ensure it meets the needs of your community and creates opportunities for you and your neighbors.

Visit http://BlueLineExt.org to take a survey by April 30, provide general comments, ask questions, and attend an upcoming virtual meeting.

To support robust and inclusive community engagement around route selection, Hennepin County is contracting with multiple local community and cultural organizations.