Update on Municipal Consent Vote

I thought it would be helpful to explain my vote on Municipal Consent that recently passed. As previously noted, Municipal Consent is a process set by MN Statute. Government bodies can vote Yes (which is consent), take No Action (which is also considered consent), or Disapprove, with changes to the current plan the city would like to see to withdraw disapproval. The city had been asking for information from the project team about our concerns for many months and we weren't making the expected progress. On Sept. 13th, days before our originally scheduled Municipal Consent vote, the project finally responded with more details. We tabled the motion to vote on Sept. 17th, in an attempt to give the project more time because their responses were still insufficient. I was in support of tabling. On Sept. 26th the project responded with additional detail, which felt like we were finally making some real progress. In my opinion, however, we were still missing important information and the updates created new questions.

The project has stated that they were working to get to yes. Their actions unfortunately didn’t meet that threshold until the last minute. From my perspective, we were at the beginning of getting to yes, not the end. Per the statute, the only way to condition a response is with a no vote. A yes vote cannot be conditional. My no vote was not a vote against the project, nor an attempt to stop light rail. It was just part of the process, a way to ensure Robbinsdale gets the answers and information we had been asking for. The council members who voted yes felt that the responses we received were satisfactory, and with so much still up in the air, I disagreed.

The Blue Line Extension is most expensive project in Minnesota history, let alone the City of Robbinsdale. It will have impacts for generations. I wish we would have received better information from the project months ago and collaborated to get to yes. Unfortunately, we didn’t start to receive the information requested until days before the vote. I felt a no vote was reasonable to get concrete responses.

I’m happy to discuss this vote further with residents, and I want to thank City Staff and the rest of the City Council for the energy put into getting what I hope will result in the best project possible for Robbinsdale.