The Minneapolis City Council finished its revisions to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Wednesday morning, sending the long-disputed guiding document for likely approval next week.
Council members also unanimously passed a new set of land-use and built-form maps that scaled back the maximum height of buildings that will be allowed in transit corridors near low-density residential areas, mainly in south Minneapolis.
In those areas, new buildings could be three stories tall, rather than the four-story limit under the earlier maps.
"This is not a small change to make at this stage in the process," said Council President Lisa Bender, who introduced the new designation. "This gives folks about a week to give us particular feedback."
Other amendments looked at city efforts to mitigate climate change, such as expanding the use of bicycles in the public transportation fleet and using more sustainable landscaping in new development. An amendment by Council Member Andrew Johnson sought to "encourage bird houses, bat houses, and other structures that provide important and safe shelters for wildlife."
Some minimal word changes were requested to make the document more inclusive and stronger in its intended goals. The plan now aims to "eliminate" instead of "reduce" racial or ethnic disparities, and any mention of "citizen or citizens" was changed to "resident or residents."
Council Member Lisa Goodman repeatedly made the argument to remove the word "require" from any amendment; the council replaced it with "encourage" or "pursue" instead.
"I'm not comfortable with the comprehensive plan requiring things," Goodman said.
