The city’s plan for the former Roof Depot site includes demolishing the building and building a new water distribution facility. But some who call the neighborhood home hope its future looks much different than that.
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An environmental justice conflict is unfolding in Minneapolisâs East Phillips neighborhood, just north of the Midtown Greenway. A local group, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), is determined to transform the former Roof Depot warehouse near Hiawatha Avenue into an urban farm and community development. The City of Minneapolis plans to relocate a deteriorating water maintenance facility to the same spot.Â
The facility will serve as a central hub for public works operations, and EPNI says that the cityâs fleet of work trucksâsome dieselâwill add to the neighborhoodâs already dangerous levels of air pollution. East Phillips has heavy traffic on its bordering highways and interior streets, and two local industr
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Trees have been chopped down to make way for demolition of the former Roof Depot warehouse as the city of Minneapolis moves forward with constructing a new water yard, despite years of opposition from organized residents.
But a coalition of Minneapolis City Council members, including Vice President Andrea Jenkins, Cam Gordon, Alondra Cano and Andrew Johnson, is offering new hope for neighborhood proponents of saving the building at 1860 28th St. E. for a community-owned urban farm.
A draft staff directive calls for suspending all aspects of the city s work to expand the Hiawatha Maintenance Facility, find an alternative site for the water yard and propose a planning process in partnership with East Phillips residents.