Minnesota District Court Declines to Extend Limited NEPA Cause of Action to Section 4(f)
Jeremy P. Greenhouse
Posted on April 4, 2016
On February 25, 2016, the United States District for the District of Minnesota granted the Metropolitan Council’s motion to dismiss challenges to a proposed light rail transit route—the Southwest Light Rail Transit (SWLRT) project—that would connect downtown Minneapolis to the southwestern Twin Cities. Opus Woods Conserv. Ass. & SFI Ltd. Partnership v. Metropolitan Council, No. 15-1637 (D. Minn. Feb. 25, 2016). In so doing, the court declined to extend a limited National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) cause of action it had recognized in a 2015 decision, also involving the SWLRT, to the related context of historical property review under Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. 49 U.S.C. § 303. Plaintiffs in the case alleged that the Met Council violated NEPA,…