PART IV: In a series on the MNRRA

The Ford Parkway Bridge spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

This is the fourth and final installment in a series of articles on the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), a National Park designation that has been referenced as a potential model for Congressman Maurice Hinchey’s Hudson River Valley Special Resource Study Act (H.R. 4003).  This post focuses on the essential content and management goals of MNRRA’s Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).

The CMP provides a framework to balance natural, cultural, and economic resource protection, visitor use, and sustainable development activities. Land management is a focal point of the plan.  The plan “will minimize adverse effects on the river corridor and conflicts between users while providing for a broad spectrum of land and water uses and managed growth. It will protect fish and wildlife resources and emphasize the importance of biological diversity in the corridor.”

Corridor management policies protect and restore the most significant visual resources, including historic structures and landscapes, and “the river corridor will have continuous public or private open space along the shoreline to the maximum extent practical, and it will be connected to the downtowns and neighborhoods by open space and trails.”

Additional public and private open space is a critically important resource in the corridor that will be stressed in plan implementation. “Such space will be provided through a continued local land and easement acquisition program. The goal will be to provide a continuous linear open space and trail along the riverfront in most of the corridor while protecting natural, cultural, and economic resources.”

While open space is encouraged in the CMP, the plan also recognizes the importance of economic activities and provides for the commercial use of the corridor consistent with the MNRRA legislation.  “Economic activity has the ability to preserve nationally significant historic and economic resources, and this is encouraged by the plan. However, this document is not an economic development plan for the corridor.”

Therefore, except in existing commercial and industrial developments, downtown areas, and historic districts, and the riverfront and bluff area, it is a vision of the CMP for the corridor to appear mostly natural from the river and its shoreline areas.  “In downtown areas and historic districts, development will be more visible, but still complement the aesthetics of the river corridor, appealing to area residents and serving as an attraction to visitors to the metropolitan area. Where the natural appearance has been altered in other areas, design guidelines and programs will be established to encourage shoreline restoration to a more natural appearance.”

The following is a summary table of the main issues the CMP addresses, based on the guidance provided by legislative direction and NPS policy.

PART III: In a series on the MNRRA

The Hastings Bridge. The MNRRA extends along 72 miles of the Mississippi River starting just below Hastings, MN and extending northward along the river.

This third installment in a series of articles on the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), referenced as a potential precedent for the Hudson River Valley Special Resource Study Act (H.R. 4003) introduced November 2009 by Congressman Maurice Hinchey, explores the framework of this National Park Service designation’s Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).  Part IV in this series will summarize the management goals and content of the CMP.

A final CMP for the MNRRA was released to the public in 1994 and approved by the secretary of the interior in 1995.  The purpose of this plan is to:

(1) protect, preserve, and enhance the significant values of the Mississippi River corridor through the Twin Cities metropolitan area;

(2) encourage coordination of federal, state, and local programs; and

(3) provide a management framework to assist the state of Minnesota and units of local government in the development and implementation of integrated resource management programs and to ensure orderly public and private development in the area.

To accomplish these goals the CMP prescribes a two-tiered approach:

Tier 1 calls for the maintenance and improvement of the state Mississippi River Critical Area Program and the state shoreland management program.  Local governments are already required to comply with the standards of these programs, and this does not change.

Tier 2 is a voluntary move that local governments can make by updating their community plans and ordinances to incorporate land use, resource protection, and open space policies as described in the CMP.  Local governments pursuing this tier can request funding and technical assistance.  Technical assistance for plan development is available from the Metropolitan Council and ordinance development is available from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Tier 1 is the initial goal, as it requires more effective implementation of existing state and regional programs. However, the long-term goal is to have all of the communities reach tier 2 and fully implement the MNRRA plan to achieve all of the plan’s purposes.

To fulfill these two tiers of implementation, the NPS collaborates with 25 local governments, several state agencies, and many civic organizations.  The Mississippi River Coordinating Commission, with the assistance of the focus groups formed early in the CMP planning process, developed vision and purpose statements that function as the CMP’s groundwork for implementation. This is carried out through a partnership framework composed of collaboration at the federal, state, and local levels, allowing this national park designation to be referred to as a “partnership park.”

This partnership approach relies upon coordination between different levels of government to manage the corridor. The plan adopts and incorporates the state critical area program, shorelands program, and other applicable state and regional land use management programs that implement the visions and concepts identified for the corridor. An important feature of the CMP is that it does not create another layer of government, but rather stresses the use of existing authorities and agencies.

The CMP states that it “will not prevent new development or expansion of existing development in the corridor that is consistent with state and regional land use management programs. It is not a regulatory document and does not mandate actions by non-NPS entities. The NPS and the commission do not have approval authority over local plans and ordinances, and they do not have authority to approve or deny project-specific land use decisions.”

Local governments retain local control of land use decisions consistent with applicable state and regional land use management programs. Land use management consistent with the MNRRA CMP is encouraged through an emphasis on incentives, including a grant program authorized in the MNRRA act, but yet to be funded by Congress.

In summary, the CMP framework, as directed by legislation, establishes a vision and provides a flexible structure for local, state, federal, and civic organizations to collaborate on preserving cultural resources and visual character, managing land and water, and enhancing visitor use, tourism, and economic development in the Mississippi River corridor through the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The next installment in this series will describe in more detail the programmatic goals of this management plan.

PART II: In a series on the MNRRA

The Hudson River Valley Special Resource Study Act (H.R. 4003), introduced November 2009 by Congressman Maurice Hinchey, references the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) as a potential precedent. This second installment in a series of articles on the MNRRA describes the public process leading up to this National Park Service designation.

Passage of  the 1988 legislation establishing  the MNRRA required the development of a comprehensive management plan (CMP). This legislation also established a 22-member Mississippi River Coordinating Commission composed of federal, state, and local officials and citizens to develop the management plan with public input from stakeholders.

In collaboration with the NPS, the Commission held 20 public hearings that included several citizen participants. In the early stages of this process, focus groups totaling 180 people from state and local agencies, businesses, and organizations provided assistance to the Commission and the NPS by gathering data, reviewing preliminary ideas, and developing vision statements.

In October 1991, the first draft vision statements and proposal were released in a project newsletter for public review.  This resulted in strong support for the vision statements. The Commission and NPS published a second newsletter in March 1992 that incorporated public feedback from the first draft.

During this period, local government representatives met in a special round of meetings to discuss the draft plan. In these meetings, local representatives favored a wide range of uses and activities for the corridor, emphasizing shared responsibility amongst all partners, and strengthening pollution control. In addition, the University of Minnesota conducted a survey of residents regarding attitudes about the river, which also helped to inform the plan.

As the plan started to take shape, the Commission and the NPS published a “notice of intent” in the Federal Register on July 14, 1992 to prepare an environmental impact study (EIS) in pursuant of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).  A year later in June of 1993, a draft CMP and EIS was published.  The draft CMP and EIS was thoroughly reviewed in four public hearings where it generated over 1,000 pages of written comments and more than 100 pages of hearing comments.  The Commission and NPS analyzed these comments and released a draft revised plan for public review in early 1994.

In April 1994, the Commission recommended the plan for review by the governor of Minnesota and the Secretary of the Interior.  The Secretary of the Interior approved the final CMP, which included a full EIS in 1995.  The final CMP provides guidance for the corridor for 10 to 15 years, the typical lifespan for a management plan of this type.  In 2009, a request was submitted to the NPS Midwest Regional Office for funding to begin development of a new management plan.

To read Part I in this series on the MNRRA, click HERE.