Minnehaha Parkway Stormwater Management

Overview

In 2024, the City of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB), and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) established the Minneapolis Thriving Waters Partnership (MTWP), to deliver coordinated, systems-based projects that improve water and enhance community placemaking in the City of Lakes. Building on the 1990s Clean Water Partnership — which kept the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes off of the state’s impaired waters list — this renewed partnership is focusing initial project efforts on the Minnehaha Creek corridor because it was not an area of investment in the 1990s. Currently, the Creek experiences high rates of untreated stormwater runoff, which erodes streambanks, degrades the Creek’s ecological integrity, and contributes pollutants to downstream, impaired Lake Hiawatha.

Initial project efforts have been guided by MPRB’s 2020 Minnehaha Parkway Regional Trail Long-Range Vision Plan (Plan), which identified a suite of potential projects to improve recreation, water quality, flooding, and natural habitat along the Creek corridor over the next 30 years. To date, MTWP has completed feasibility of three Phase 1 partnership projects identified in the Plan, and is aligning partner resources to advance selected projects into design. Alongside Phase 1 design, MTWP plans to initiate feasibility for a second phase of project opportunities along the Creek corridor. Additionally, the Partners are developing a long-range planning framework to guide subsequent phases of coordinated water resource investment in the Creek and lakes throughout the system.