Hamline Midway creates 10-year plan

Hamline-Midway neighborhood’s proposed plan for the next decade is now in the hands of a St. Paul Planning Commission committee. Justin Lewandowski, organizing director for the Hamline Midway Coalition (HMC), was the lone speaker at a July 25, 2025 commission public hearing on the plan.
The commission’s Comprehensive and Neighborhood Planning Committee will review his comments and any others that came in by end of day July 28.
The committee will send the plan back to the full commission for a vote, likely in August. The plan then goes to the St. Paul City Council, which reviewed the plan this spring, recommended that it be released for public comment and the hearing.
Lewandowski spoke of the “pretty significant challenges” that HMC and community members faced, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
He said the plans reflects the hopes and dreams, and passions and desires of the neighborhood, and urged the planning commission to support it.
The plan is a community’s vision for Hamline Midway in the future and will be used to guide the district council’s work, he said.
The intent is for district plans to not just sit on a shelf. When the city council adopts a district plan, it becomes part of the city’s comprehensive plan. It is used to guide future land use and zoning decisions, shape public investments and set other priorities for a community.
The last area district council to have a district plan approved was St. Anthony Park Community Council in 2022. Frogtown Neighborhood Association brought forward its district plan for approval in 2019, using a comic book format.
Other plans are older. One district plan dates back to 1979.
The planning commission and city planning staff have expressed a desire to have district plans updated once every decade. But many councils lack resources to bring in consultants or hire contractors to help with plans.
HMC developed its plan with staff, board and community members, led by a steering committee. It took more than four years to develop due in large part to the pandemic.
HMC’s last plan was completed in 2010. It was submitted to city staff in November 2024.
The plan covers development, parks and recreation, historic preservation, arts and culture, and environment and sustainability.
Read the draft plan and learn more about the planning process at https://hamlinemidway.org/projects/neighborhood-plan/