The rules affect cities and townships along the Mississippi River from Dayton to Ravenna Township in Minnesota. (Friends of the Mississippi River)
As of late 2025, all 25 river cities and townships in the metro area have adopted new regulations for riverfront development. According to Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR), a nonprofit which works “to protect, restore and enhance the Mississippi River and its watershed in the Twin Cities region,” this represents a milestone in “clearer, science-based regulations for riverfront development.”
In a March 24 call with the Northeaster, Colleen O’Connor Toberman, land use and planning program director at FMR, framed the newly adopted ordinance as a move toward clarity about environmental rules. “It’s good for everyone, and it’s good for the river,” she said.
“(The ordinance) provides a clear, predictable standard ahead of time,” she continued. At planning commission meetings, she said, “Everyone’s disagreeing, and everyone has a different idea of what should be allowed. That’s not good for anyone. It doesn’t give developers any predictability about what the city will let them build. It takes everyone’s time, and a lot of neighbors feel frustrated that it didn’t feel fair to them either.
“One standard that everyone knows in advance brings clarity to all of those people… Developers already know what will be allowed, and the standard they will be held to; neighbors already know what can be built in their neighborhood; and the city can make clearer, more predictable, faster decisions with a fresh new standard.”
A map provided by FMR outlines seven “Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Districts.” The stretch of the river touching Northeast Minneapolis contains three of them: A small “River Neighborhood” which includes Nicollet Island, an “Urban Core” section near downtown Minneapolis and an “Urban Mixed” zoning stretching north.
Information from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the rules adopted by cities and townships, indicates that the different districts have differing zoning rules. Among other items, these rules dictate how tall buildings can be and how close they can be to the waterfront.
When pressed about how the guidelines regarding building height limits and view protections might be used to roadblock developments,
O’Connor Toberman emphasized that the seven districts have different zoning regulations, representing a different understanding of what the river is like in that area.
“In North and Northeast Minneapolis, you’re going to see buildings. That’s okay. you’re going to see buildings. That’s okay. That’s part of the character. (The ordinance’s authors) have already worked to define: ‘What is the river in this neighborhood?’” That work, she said, has codified that character “now, rather than being debated project by project. We’re not here to block all development. It creates a consistent standard. It’s thoughtful. It solves the questions ahead of time.”
This map shows the three Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Districts touching Northeast Minneapolis — River Neighborhood, Urban Core and Urban Mixed — that are subject to new regulations on vegetation and land alteration, building height, setbacks, scenic views, plant and tree preservation and open space. (Provided)
A twenty-year effort
In 2007, individuals working for Friends of the Mississippi River, a nonprofit focused on protecting and restoring the Mississippi River and its Twin Cities watershed, prepared a new report on the “Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Program.”
The introduction to the 63-page report framed it as a “(response) to a mandate from the Legislature to report on the status of the state critical area program for the Mississippi River corridor in the Twin Cities region.”
The report described increasing urban development along the Mississippi River: “Places with high scening, ecological, historic and cultural values … are threatened by the attractiveness and market value they create, and in need of special attention and protection.”
A 2017 FMR post celebrating the rules’ formal adoption in Minnesota added that “large development projects” would need to set aside portions of their land for “open space.”
“This provision is extremely important at the northern and southern ends of the corridor, where many of the last remaining large tracts of high-quality forest, prairie and wetland remain,” it said.
Even then, FMR acknowledged the difficult road ahead. “Each of the 25 river corridor cities and townships will need to update their plans and ordinances to be consistent with the new rules,” it said. “FMR plans to reach out to city officials and local citizens to engage in this process, which is expected to take three to five years.”
After a three-year period, from 2018-20, when cities and townships reconciled their plans with the new rules, the FMR worked with “each city and township” to help them adopt the ordinances.
The rules’ controls
According to the FMR, the rules provide five key controls.
First, they limit vegetation removal and land alteration on and around bluffs, helping to manage erosion along the riverfront. The rules also require construction teams work to minimize their runoff during the construction process.
Second, they require that buildings must be built “at least 40 feet away from the edge of a bluff” in “most districts.”
Thirdly, building height limits and scenic view protections “protect many of the river’s most iconic views and vistas.” The FMR stresses that cities can grant exceptions to these limits, but that process requires that cities show how views might be impacted by new developments.
Fourth, the new rules include “shoreline plant and tree preservation methods” and stipulates and landowners and developers remove vegetation “outside of bird migration and nesting seasons.”
Fifth, as FMR wrote about in 2017, large developments (spaces in excess of 10 acres for sites along the river) need to set aside open space. This is part of an effort to address what the FMR describes as a lack of public access: “More shoreline is privately owned rather than public parkland,” the organization writes.
What’s next
The ordinance’s adoption along the metro corridor represents a new chapter for FMR. O’Connor Toberman said the organization will watch to ensure the ordinances are “properly applied and upheld,” but she pointed towards a few other areas of interest, too.
“We’re really interested in the Graco Site,” she said, referring to the nine-acre Graco Park near the Mississippi. “Things that go beyond what the ordinance can do, and to what a community vision is: before you get into structural and dimensional standards and things like that.”
She said that, either late this year or early next year, FMR will initiate a feasibility study into removing the Lower Saint Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, which is on the eastern side of the Mills District. “Those locks are no longer serving the barge traffic they were built for,” she said, adding that the locks are “deteriorating.”
At present, “either we have to keep investing in maintaining them,” or, “Maybe it doesn’t make sense to keep them at all… It’s a very tricky question, and I truly don’t know how to answer it yet.”