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History of the Council

A regional solution for regional problems

Forty years ago, a rural-dominated Minnesota Legislature took a bold step – it voted to create a regional planning and coordinating body for the seven-county metropolitan area.

For much of their history, Minneapolis and St. Paul were intense rivals. However, by the mid-1960s, the two cities had joined together to secure major league baseball, football and hockey teams. They grew together more closely with the completion of the interstate freeway between the two cities. And they came to recognize that rapid growth presented region‑wide opportunitiesand challenges requiring greater regional cooperation.

In 1967 – at the urging of many local government, business and civic leaders – the Metropolitan Council was created to:

• Plan for the orderly and economical development of the seven‑county metro area, and
• Coordinate the delivery of certain services that could not be effectively provided by any one city or county.

The drive for the Council’s creation was led by the Citizens League, the Metropolitan Section of the League of Minnesota Municipalities, the League of Women Voters and others. They saw the need for some kind of regional body to deal with issues that transcended the boundaries of nearly 300 separate local units of government – including seven counties, 188 cities and townships, and 22 special purpose districts.

In the 1967 session, the Legislature considered two competing proposals: a Council elected from geographic districts with broad operating powers, and a Council of at-large appointees with limited planning powers.

The final bill was a compromise – a Council appointed by the governor from geographic districts with planning and coordinating powers. Operating responsibilities for regional services were vested in separate boards – the existing Metropolitan Airports Commission, the Metropolitan Transit Commission (also created in 1967) and the Metropolitan Sewer Board (created in 1969). The Council was not given operating responsibility for transit and wastewater services until 1994.

The measure was given final approval by the Legislature on May 19, 1967, and signed by Governor Harold LeVander on May 25. In appointing the Council’s first members, Governor LeVander said the Council “was conceived with the idea that we will be faced with more and more problems that will pay no heed to the boundary lines which mark the end of one community in this metropolitan area and the beginning of another.”

“This Council was created to do a job which has proved too big for any single community,” the Governor said.

Gov. Harold LeVander (seated, center) appointed the first members of the Metropolitan Council in August 1967. Seated at the far left is James Hetland, the first Council chair.