A legislative initiative to replace the Metropolitan Council's authority over transportation planning with a 24-member panel that would include 17 elected city and county officials is a wrongheaded approach to what could be a valuable reexamination of regional planning.
Twin proposals in the House and Senate are too specific to Scott County concerns and too narrowly focused on transit and transportation, as opposed to engaging the entire region in addressing the council's broader portfolio of managing wastewater, parks and low-income housing.
The author of the House bill, Rep. Michael Beard, R-Shakopee, who chairs the Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, acknowledged as much when he told an editorial writer that his bill was "introduced at the request of my friends in Scott County, and it was more narrowly focused on the transportation side of things. The serious discussion will have to involve all facets of the Met Council."
He added that the bill was incomplete. "It does fix a problem, but it doesn't fix the whole problem. ... Maybe we should step back and take a comprehensive approach."
Beard is right to realize that this discussion must be broader to create consensus on changing an agency that has made the Twin Cities one of the better-planned regions in America.
The latest evidence of the council's key role came on Tuesday, when federal authorities signed off on investing $478 million, or half the cost, of the Central Corridor light-rail line that will link downtown St. Paul with downtown Minneapolis.
Nevertheless, the council can become more effective. The Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) reported in January that the region's transit system is strong but that the council's governance structure is "far from ideal."
The OLA recommended restructuring, but not dismantling, the council.
