As a founding member of Minneapolis for Everyone, a group that first tried modify, then opposed the Minneapolis 2040 Plan, DJ Tice’s column “Has Minneapolis’ 2040 Plan made housing more affordable?” confirms what we knew. Changing zoning and reducing citizen input into development issues did not create a housing boom resulting in “cheap and abundant housing.”
How did we get here? Housing activists argued that zoning regulations and citizen input processes held back developers from meeting demand for housing. Reducing these barriers would unleash developers to produce more housing. Simple supply and demand meant housing prices would decline. This thinking is called “Yes In My Back Yard” or YIMBY. This was the cornerstone of the Minneapolis 2040 Plan.
What did the 2040 Plan do? It reduced regulations on developers. Any single family home could be demolished and replaced with at least a triplex. In parts of the City with concentrations of people of color, single family homes could be replaced with even larger housing. Rather than concentrating new housing at transit nodes and in existing walkable environments like previous plans, any street with a bus could now have a five-story apartment anywhere. Developers no longer had to provide parking. Design guidelines requiring new buildings fit into their surroundings were jettisoned. Small area plans, once the cornerstone of city planning, were eliminated – along with neighbor input. Requirements to build three and four bedroom apartments and ownership housing were excluded. Streets would be rebuilt for bikes and transit because we would have so much density that people would not need cars. We would sacrifice greenspace and allow buildings to be bigger and taller and cover every square inch of a parcel because the unmet demand for housing was so great. It didn’t matter if the housing was out of scale or out of place or in a low density area or would negatively impact people already in the neighborhood – we *just* *needed* *to* *build* *more* *housing.*
Purple signs saying, “End the Housing Shortage: More Homes Now” and “Neighbors for More Neighbors” cropped up everywhere. A torrent of social media pushed the Plan through.
Did the Plan work? No. According to Helena Gu and David Munro, in their study Zoning Reforms and Housing Affordability: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Plan, “the reform did not trigger a construction boom or an immediate increase in the housing supply.”
Other data supports this. There was no housing boom but actually the opposite. In 2019, the City permitted over 4,800 housing units but only 400 in 2024. Minneapolis is 128th out of 128 Midwest cities in new housing development. The City’s population actually declined from 2020 to 2024. Rent increased 13.5% from 2019 to 2025, by almost $200 a month. Ownership housing costs increased 17% during the same time period, going up almost $50,000 in five years. Rent for new unsubsidized apartments is more expensive than purchasing a single family home.
The plan has resulted in just plain bad development. Instead of housing concentrated at transit nodes and walkable environments, apartment buildings have cropped up in low-density neighborhoods where land was cheaper. Virtually no ownership housing has been built. What housing that has been built has often been out of scale and insensitive to its surroundings. Greenspace has been lost. Parking has been taken from long-time residents. The streets throttle auto access. About the only successful housing outcome has been an increase in affordable housing, not because of the 2040 Plan, but because Mayor Frey increased subsidies.
Rather than admit that its policies are failing, the City Council is now talking about rent control, something that is proven to increase housing costs and reduce housing construction.
The solution is simple. Abandon the failed 2040 Plan. Revert to the 2030 Plan, the Plan that the City grew 12.4% under. Because the 2040 Plan is producing bad outcomes that will be with the city for generations.
Lisa McDonald
Former Minneapolis Tenth Ward City Council Member
Zoning Chair for the Minneapolis 2030 Plan
Founder, Minneapolis for Everyone
