Despite opposition to building a major freeway through Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is moving to the next stage of the process with 10 highway expansion alternatives and a “preferred alternative” that does not reflect community or local government input.
The agency has released federal and state draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) documents available for public comment through December 22, 2026.
The agency and the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) preferred alternative is to build a four-lane freeway with bus shoulders, which MnDOT describes as an approach that “[balances] transportation benefits, community considerations, environmental impacts and cost.”
However, while MnDOT may frame its preferred alternative as a compromise, it only looks reasonable because every other option on the table is worse and would lead to additional impacts. Choosing the least damaging freeway still means building a freeway through our communities and directly harming residents, something residents and the City of Brooklyn Center have opposed for years.
We agree that Highway 252 needs to be safer, and that any project should improve residents’ quality of life and support economic growth in both Brooklyns. But MnDOT’s process shut out real input from the residents and local leaders who know the corridor best. The result is a preferred alternative that answers MnDOT’s priorities rather than the community’s. A safer, more connected, more vibrant corridor is possible, but only if the people who live along it have a real say in what gets built.
This is a critical opportunity to share your opposition to MnDOT’s preferred alternative and opposition to a highway in any form. Building this highway threatens businesses, homes, places of worship, and the public and environmental health of people who call Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center home.
Your public comments create an official record of community opposition and hold the agency accountable. Your comment matters—not because MnDOT has earned trust in this process or shown it wants to listen to elected officials and community members, but because silence lets it claim community consent where none exists.
How to submit your comment
There are three ways to participate during the official comment period:
- Online comment form: Visit the project webpage to fill out the online comment form.
- Attend a public meeting: MnDOT is hosting numerous public hearings, with the first opportunity on Tuesday, November 10. Check out the website for the full list.
- Leave a voicemail: Call 952-944-5555.
- Mail your comment: Amber Blanchard, Project Manager, Minnesota Department of Transportation, 1500 West County Road B2, Roseville, MN 55113
What to say in your comment
Your comment should explain why you oppose the preferred alternative. It can be personal and specific to your experience. Use this structure to help you write an effective comment.
Describe how an elevated highway and twice the vehicle traffic traveling through the community will impact you, your family, or your community.
- Health impacts: Air pollution, asthma, respiratory issues, or concerns about your children’s health.
- Noise pollution: How increased traffic noise will affect your quality of life, sleep, and ability to enjoy outdoor spaces.
- Safety concerns: Dangerous crossings, high-speed traffic through your neighborhood, or near-misses you’ve witnessed.
- Community division: How the highway will separate you from neighbors, schools, businesses, or services.
- Economic barriers: Limited housing, reduced property values, a lack of local, community-centered development and small businesses, and the seizure of businesses and homes for highway construction.
Raise your concerns about the process
The comment period lets you formally document the problems community members have experienced with MnDOT’s project process.
- The decision to remove the offer of only highway options went against community input. Despite overwhelming community support for non-highway options, MnDOT dismissed opposition from elected officials and the Highway 252 Safety Task Force.
- The traffic models are flawed. Even the Metropolitan Council identified key issues: the models don’t account for mode shift (people switching from driving to transit, biking, or walking), don’t reflect land use changes, and don’t accurately capture traffic diversion.
- Environmental justice protections have been stripped. MnDOT worked with the Trump Administration to remove environmental justice, community health, racial equity, and climate considerations from the formal environmental review process. While these were added to separate state documents for the project, many questions remain about how MnDOT upholds state values and local concerns.
- Community engagement has been inadequate. Meetings scheduled with less than a week’s notice, at times conflicting with other public meetings, make meaningful participation nearly impossible.
- The process seems designed to justify a predetermined outcome. Rather than genuinely exploring alternatives, MnDOT appears focused on rebuilding and expanding the highway.
Make a clear ask
End your comment with a specific request.
- Do not build a major freeway in any form.
- Deny municipal consent for the project in its current form.
- Start a broader public visioning process so community members can meaningfully shape a vision for the corridor.
- Restore environmental justice, health, and equity considerations to the review process.
- Pause the project until meaningful community engagement can occur.
- Fix the way MnDOT operates at the state level to deliver a transportation system that works for everyone.
I am writing to oppose MnDOT’s preferred alternative for Highway 252 and any option that builds a freeway of any kind through Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.
A freeway carrying twice the traffic would bring more air pollution and noise into our neighborhoods, worsening asthma and other health problems for families who already live with the current highway. It would make it more dangerous to cross to schools, parks and businesses, cut neighbors off from one another, and take the homes and businesses that make this community what it is. Residents and the City of Brooklyn Center asked for safety improvements, not a bigger highway.
I agree that Highway 252 needs to change, but I am concerned about how this decision was made, and I do not support any of MnDOT’s proposed freeway designs. The engagement process today is asking us to decide between harmful freeway options, but my neighbors, local leaders, and I do not want a bigger highway in our communities in the first place.
MnDOT dropped non-highway options despite strong support from residents, elected officials, and the Highway 252 Safety Task Force, and it has not given residents a meaningful chance to shape the project. Environmental justice, health, equity, and climate have taken a back seat to moving as many cars as possible through our community. As a result, the proposals reflect what MnDOT wants: a bigger and faster road through the Brooklyns, rather than what we want: a people-centered corridor that improves safety, offers real transportation choices, and supports local economic development.
I formally ask:
- MnDOT not to build the preferred alternative or any expanded, grade-separated freeway.
- MnDOT, the governor, and state legislators to pause the project and start a new process, returning to the project’s purpose and need so the community can help define a better design for the corridor.
- My city council members [in Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn Park] to deny municipal consent for the project in its current form.
- The governor and state legislators to reform MnDOT’s processes so public concerns are meaningfully addressed and state values are reflected in what gets built in communities across Minnesota.
Why your comment matters
Even though MnDOT has not been responsive to community voices, submitting your comment is still critical.
- It becomes part of the official record, just like the community voices who fought the original freeway in the 1960s.
- It demonstrates the breadth of opposition, showing that this isn’t just a vocal minority, but widespread community concern.
- It helps your elected officials by giving them support to advocate for transformative solutions on your behalf.
- It creates accountability and documents MnDOT’s failures to address legitimate community concerns.
- Silence allows MnDOT to claim consent. Your comment ensures they cannot claim community support where none exists.
Take action
Brooklyn Center asked for safety improvements, not an elevated highway polluting the neighborhoods and the Mississippi River. This public comment period is your opportunity to demand a different future—one that prioritizes health, equity, and community connection over repeating history with highway expansion.
You can take action by sending your public comment to your elected officials!
About Save the Brooklyns
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is moving forward with destructive plans to expand Highway 252 in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, doubling traffic in environmental justice communities and demolishing dozens of homes and businesses. Join the growing public awareness and community opposition—let’s stop uselessly spending taxpayer dollars on highway expansion and save the Brooklyns.