Minn. Stat. 473.313 requires a long-range plan to be developed by each regional park implementing agency in consultation with all affected municipalities. While the statute requires only one long-range plan per regional park implementing agency, the Met Council requires individual long-range plans for each regional park, park reserve, regional trail, and special feature. Long-range plans prepared by the regional park implementing agencies are critical in defining the specifics of acquisition, development, and operation of regional facilities.

Among other components, long-range plans must include boundary information, a development concept, estimates of future use and costs, and summaries of partner and community engagement, including an equity analysis. Accessibility and public awareness are also key components, including how people may be able to access the regional park or trail via transit. In addition, long-range plans should address the protection and restoration of natural systems, as well as climate adaptation and mitigation. Long-range plans must also address other state laws where applicable, such as the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area.

Long-range plan requirements are grouped into three major areas and include a subset of required content areas, which will be detailed below:

• Engagement
  • Demand Forecast
  • Public Awareness
  • Engagement, Participation, and Equity Analysis
• Development Concept
  • Boundaries
  • Acquisition Costs
  • Development Concept
  • Accessibility
  • Operations
  • Public Services
• Natural Systems
  • Stewardship Plan
  • Natural Resources
  • Mississippi Corridor Critical Area

Specific long-range plan requirements for regional parks, park reserves, regional trails, and special features now reside in the Regional Parks and Trails Planning Handbook.

Collectively, these long-range plans form the regional park implementing agencies’ part of the regional system plan. The Council reviews long-range plans for consistency with this Regional Parks and Trails Policy Plan and other Council policy plans. Inconsistent plans will be returned with comments to the regional park implementing agency. Next, the agency must revise and resubmit their plans to the Council. For a regional park implementing agency to receive a grant for acquisition or development, the proposed project must be consistent with a Council-approved long-range plan.

To inform demand forecasts, public engagement, and equity analyses, the Council will provide agencies contextual information such as demographic data for the region and their jurisdictions, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, household income, ability, age, and gender. This information will help identify communities who may be underserved by the Regional Parks and Trails System.

Once the Council designates a unit to be a part of the Regional Parks and Trails System, the next step is for the regional park implementing agency to conduct a long-range planning process, as described above. There are times when a regional park implementing agency has an opportunity to acquire – or protect under an option to purchase – land that does not yet have a development concept, which is one of the requirements for long-range planning. In these situations, the regional park implementing agency may choose, in consultation with Council staff, to develop an acquisition long-range plan, to establish the long-range plan boundary or to adjust an existing Council-approved long-range plan boundary. The acquisition long-range plan or amendment may focus solely on the land under option to purchase.

When a regional park implementing agency has an opportunity to add, modify, or remove land holding from one of its units, it must change its long-range plan’s boundary. These changes happen for a variety of reasons. For instance, the regional park implementing agency may better understand the land needed to implement the long-range plan vision, a previously unwilling landowner may become ready to sell property adjacent to the unit, or land may be donated to the agency.

Major boundary adjustments are handled through the system additions process, which requires amending the Regional Parks and Trails Policy Plan. This process happens on an approximately four-year cycle. If an opportunity for a major boundary adjustment arises off-cycle, the Council may consider a focused policy plan amendment, which will determine whether the addition should be brought into the system.

Extensions for existing and planned regional trails are major boundary adjustments addressed during the system additions process, which typically occurs on a four-year cycle.

Minor boundary adjustments are additions or removals of smaller acreages of land, usually from a single property owner to an existing Council-approved long-range plan boundary.

Minn. Stat. 473.313 requires long-range plans be developed by the park implementing agencies consistent with this plan; however, it does not specify when revisions are necessary. As discussed earlier in this Plan, the regional park implementing agency will submit a long-range plan amendment to the Council to change its original proposal for acquisition and/or development, or when the agency has developed significant additional details that needs to be reflected in the long-range plan. The Council may approve or reject the long-range plan amendment for cause and return the plan to the regional park implementing agency for revisions to address the Met Council’s concerns.

Regional park implementing agencies must provide an opportunity for the public and affected local units of government nearby the particular park or trail to participate in the process to amend a long-range plan. With regard to financing the construction of recreation and visitor support facilities proposed in a long-range plan, it is important that there is sufficient detail about the facility in the long-range plan and that the regional park implementing agency is ready to construct the facility when funds become available. If a long-range plan amendment is needed before funding the construction of a facility, the regional park implementing agency must provide the public and affected local units of government an opportunity to participate in the process, as well.

There are several reasons when long-range plan amendments are required to demonstrate how changes to the Regional Parks and Trails System remain consistent with the Met Council’s expectations as outlined in this plan. They include, but are not limited to:

• Improvements that substantially differ from the original intentions of the Council-approved long-range plan
• Changes to a park or trail boundary
• Significant changes or additions to a regional park concessioners’ agreement (see Section 7: Recreation, Facilities, and Programming – Action 2)
• Proposals for placement of telecommunications towers on Regional Parks and Trails System land (see Section 6: System Protection – Action 3).

The Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission and Council will then review the long-range plan amendment for consistency with the conditions of this policy and either approve, modify, or reject the long-range plan amendment.

Occasionally regional park implementing agencies seek to make minor changes to a long-range plan that may only impact a subset of long-range plan requirement areas. For example, an agency may be interested in integrating a new outdoor recreation facility (e.g., several miles of new mountain bike trails) that is outside of the scope of the original vision or development concept or proposes to make minor changes to only one part of a much larger park unit. In those instances, regional park implementing agency staff should discuss the scope of the desired plan amendment with Met Council staff prior to commencing the amendment process to determine the required subset of long-range plan requirements. Focused long-range plan amendments are considered through the Met Council committee process that typically has a 60-day duration.

For more information on the process for focused long-range plan amendments, please visit the Regional Parks and Trails Planning Handbook.

Occasionally, plan amendments are made to address minor changes or proposals that have no material change to the regional park or trail. Examples of amendment candidates for the administrative process may include minor corrections, changes to natural area management or trail implementation that result in no material change to the park or trail, and/or underground utility improvements. Amendments reviewed administratively must meet all the relevant criteria adopted by the Met Council, which may be amended from time to time outside of this regional plan. Administrative reviews of minor long-range plan amendments are conducted by Council staff with delegated authority granted by the Met Council, and they are not required to be presented to the regular Council committees for review and approval. There may be instances when Council staff direct minor amendment proposals to the regular Met Council committees, due to political sensitivity or other contextual factors. Administrative review is proposed to be completed within 15 business days once the long-range plan amendment has been deemed complete.

For more information on the administrative process for minor long-range plan amendments, please visit the Regional Parks and Trails Planning Handbook.

The Regional Parks and Trails System plays a key role in advancing the livability of the region by increasing access to nature and outdoor recreation, thereby supporting healthy lifestyles and active living. The Council has a unique opportunity to help achieve this objective, through its roles in operating the transit system as well as planning for the Regional Parks and Trails System. In addition to design considerations for long-range plans discussed in the previous section, regional park implementing agencies are encouraged to:

• Provide transit schedules and information at regional parks that are served by transit
• Include information on how to access a regional park or trail by transit on their agency’s website, where applicable
• Improve wayfinding signage
• Promote regional trails with existing transportation management organizations that provide marketing and advocacy to promote multi-modal options for daily commutes.
• Coordinate with local jurisdictions to identify and plan for local trail connections to regional parks and trails as well as last mile connections from transit
• Collaborate with bike-share programs to locate bike stations near regional parks and trails.

The Council will explore the following projects:

• Collaborate with local agencies to develop strategies for improving wayfinding across agency boundaries to include the following:
  • Use GIS data to provide the public with information about trail connections
  • Explore additional funding opportunities to help with regional connectivity
  • Collaborate with agencies on developing minimum requirements for signage
• Collaborate with Metro Transit and local transit providers to determine the feasibility of the following actions:
  • Promote regional parks and trails at bus stops
  • Explore options for locating new park-and-rides near or adjacent to regional parks, or new regional trails near park-and-rides or fixed-route transit lines
  • Promote a transit day pass or family pass to regional parks
  • Provide free rides to large special events in regional parks
  • Add transit stops that are convenient to regional parks and trails