What is the Hiawatha Golf Course Area Master Plan, and why should I care?

Lake Hiawatha in Minneapolis was historically Bde Psin (Rice Lake) and was an important part of the sacred Bdote homeland of the Dakota.

Its ecology has been seriously messed up by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and the city of Minneapolis since it was purchased in 1929. It's now the most polluted lake in the chain of lakes, by a long shot. Neighbors have been asking for years for resolution to the pollution issues at the lake.

The 18-hole golf course that was built on top of the wetland delta in the 1930s is a major factor in the ecological issues at the lake. Most parties who are familiar with the water issues concur that the filling of the wetland and the placement of a golf course at this site should never have occurred in the first place.

The golf course holds special value for a group of Black golfers who play there and feel it is one of the more welcoming courses in Minneapolis. In recognition of the course’s importance to the Black golf community, MPRB has committed to retaining some amount of golf on the site.

The lake and its ecology are important to Indigenous residents who recognize it as the closest lake to the Little Earth community, value it as a place of meaningful indigenous history, and desire rewilding of the lake.

After many years of extremely detailed analysis and engineering effort, MPRB staff and consultants have determined that there is no way for 18 holes of golf to be maintained on the site, due to flooding and regulatory issues. The details of this determination are very involved, as there have been many, many attempts to find some way for 18 holes to continue on the site. It is financially and legally infeasible to continue to operate 18 holes at this location.

The MPRB has developed the 9-hole "master plan" for the area. This plan makes enormous improvements to the flooding and water quality issues at the site. It sets the golf course on higher, drier land and allows for broader, free community access to the lake and its natural spaces.

A group of 18-hole advocates continues to staunchly oppose the 9-hole plan despite the fact that no ecologically or legally feasible alternative has been identified by any of the several parties who have attempted to find one. This group has been responsible for much of the widespread misinformation about this topic.

At this juncture the MPRB has a choice to make: Continue entertaining a fantasy in which 18 holes is feasible on the site, despite 7 years and almost $1 million dollars in planning and engineering efforts that have concluded that 18 holes cannot be sustained? Or move forward with a compromise plan that, incredibly, manages to establish a sustainable golf operation as well as serving as a solution to the flooding and ecological problems at the lake?

We hope you will contact the MPRB commissioners and ask them to VOTE YES on the plan that supports a climate-resilient 9-hole golf course plan that manages flooding, honors the histories of Black golf and Indigenous stewardship of the area, and creates free access to a thriving, restored lake and surrounding wetlands.