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Big problems for a new agency

At the time of the Council’s creation, the region faced some major challenges:

• Backyard septic systems were failing in many suburban communities, and inadequately treated wastewater was being discharged into many of the region’s lakes, rivers and streams.
• The Twin Cities’ privately owned bus company was rapidly disintegrating, a victim of rising fares, declining ridership and an aging bus fleet.
• Rapid growth was threatening vital natural areas better suited for preservation as parks and open space.
• Growing fiscal disparities were making it difficult for communities with inadequate tax capacity to fund essential services and were providing unhealthy development incentives.

The fledgling agency did not have to start from scratch. It inherited a small staff and a decade of studies from the Metropolitan Planning Commission, an advisory body that had been created by state lawmakers in 1957.

The Council’s creation was followed in succeeding years by the enactment of other legislation to strengthen the Council and address pressing regional issues. These Council-backed initiatives included the 1969 legislation that created the regional sewer system, the 1971 law that established the region’s unique tax-base sharing system, and the 1974 laws creating the regional park system and the Metropolitan Housing and Development Authority (HRA).

The Met Council did not win immediate and broad public acceptance. Over the years, there were periodic calls for the Legislature to eliminate the Council. In the mid-1970s, a group of Dakota County communities threatened to boycott the Council and withhold its property tax dollars.

However, the Council persevered and did not shy away from controversial decisions. One of the Council’s first major decisions came in 1970, when it vetoed the Metropolitan Airports Commission’s selection of Ham Lake in Anoka County as a site for a second major airport. One fear: that it would cause environmental harm to the 23,000-acre Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge, the state’s largest wildlife refuge.

James Hetland, the Council’s first chair, recalls that there were a number of powerful forces pushing the proposal, including business groups that wanted the region to have a “world class” airport. “The problem was that they wanted to build in a very ecologically sensitive area,” he says.