[ARCHIVED] Midtown Greenway Regional Trail Plan The Midtown Greenway Regional Trail Plan is a planning process that is exploring the addition of the Greenway to the MPRB regional trail system. This planning process will establish a clear path for MPRB’s role operations of the trail. Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority will remain the underlying landowner.

Milestones (anticipated project schedule by month/season)

Fall-Winter 2022: Vision and Discovery, Community Engagement, partner and previous document/plan synthesizing

Fall 2023-Spring 2024: Draft master plan development and JPA for operations roles development

Summer 2024: Public Comment Period, MPRB approval, and Met Council approval, and JPA approval

Summer 2024: Midtown Greenway regional trail counts

Funding sources and park history

Metropolitan Council established the Midtown Greenway as a Regional Trail Search Corridor in the 2020 Regional Parks Policy Plan as a result of action and support by the MPRB Board of Commissioners and agency partners. In order to bring the trail into the regional trail system, a master plan needs to be developed and approved by MPRB and the Met Council.

This significant trail is fully built and has been a critical part of the Twin Cities trail network, but the master plan is a necessary next step for full inclusion in the Regional Park and Trail system and to clarify MPRB’s role in ownership and operations of the trail. This is a unique planning process as it will focus on synthesizing a master plan document that draws largely on community engagement, design, and analysis work done by partners and entities since the inception of the Greenway.  This effort will also result in an operations plan that will guide ongoing maintenance and management of the Greenway.   Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) will remain the underlying landowner. The City of Minneapolis is the current trail operator and will be part of the operations plan along with HCRRA.