The Climate and Infrastructure Committee met on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 1:34 PM. Vice Chair Soren Stevenson presided. The committee addressed the consent agenda, heard public testimony on the committee's work plan and the Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction Project, discussed the project, received a legislative directive response on the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), and postponed the climate equity action plan.
First Public Comment Period – 2026-2029 Climate and Infrastructure Committee Work Plan:
Second Public Comment Period – Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction Project and Designation Resolution:
Lyndale Avenue Reconstruction Project:
Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) Legislative Directive Response:
Climate Equity Action Plan:
It is 1 34. We have quorum now. Communications, are we ready to begin? Good afternoon and welcome. My name is Soren Stevenson. I am the vice chair of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee. I'm going to be chairing today's meeting. I'm going to call to order our regular meeting for Thursday, July 9th, 2026. Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all committee members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum for this meeting. Councilmember Vito. Present. Warren? Present. Is absent. Chadri? Present. Question Stevenson present. Chair Wandsley is absent. We have five present. Let the record reflect we have a quorum. I'll remind my colleagues we'll be using speaker management today, so please make sure you're signed up. If we're still experiencing tech issues, we may need to shift to using our red tags. For members of the public that are here for one of the public comment periods, if you wish to address the committee, we ask you to register with the clerks to my right. You can also provide any written comments or materials to include in the public record. Public works staff will also be available after the presentation to connect if you have specific questions. With that, our agenda is in front of us, and we'll begin with the consent agenda reflected in items four through 22 on our agenda. Item number three of consent. I think there's something wrong in the script. But item number three on consent, passage of resolution for uh gift acceptance from Equivolve. Number four, passage of resolution for a gift acceptance from Brookings Transportation Initiative. Number five, passage of resolution for a gift acceptance from Minneapolis Foundation. Number six, passage of resolution for the for a resolution of support for the Minnesota Department of Transportation Highway 280 project. Seven, setting a public hearing for August 20th for the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Central Avenue improvement project. Number eight, passage of resolution for the land sale of two parcels at Wedge Point Park to Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Number nine, authorizing grant applications to Minnesota Department of Transportation for 2026 Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds. Number 10, accepting the low bid for the West River Road Phase 2 project. Number 11, approving a legislative directive related to the proposed closure of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center. Colleagues, if there's any discussion or are there any items that anyone would like to pull for further discussion. Seeing no further discussion, I'll move uh approval of the consent agenda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Next, we'll take up our public comment periods reflected in items one and two on the agenda. Anybody who has signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify. For everyone in attendance, and especially those who may participate in our hearings or comment period, let me offer this notice. These meetings are being recorded and broadcast before the recording and broadcast are classified.