Brooklyn Park council hears Blue Line Extension design update; park-and-ride ownership, fencing and outreach flagged

Metro Transit and Brooklyn Park staff updated the City Council Monday on design progress for the Blue Line Extension and answered council questions about an Oak Grove Parkway park-and-ride, an operations and maintenance facility and neighborhood design elements.

The presentation, led by Mark Culver, city engineer, and Ryan Kranzler, Metro Transit assistant director of design and engineering, covered station renderings for a 13.4-mile alignment with 13 stations terminating near the Target campus at Oak Grove Parkway, project schedule milestones, streetscape concepts along West Broadway, and funding and maintenance responsibilities. Kranzler told the council the team is working at a 60% design level and expects to finish designs in 2026 and publish a final environmental impact statement and seek a record of decision from the Federal Transit Administration later this year.

Why it matters: The project will reconfigure large parts of West Broadway and the area north of Trunk Highway 610 and is paired with street, utility and trail construction that city staff say could unlock future development. Council members focused on how the project will affect the city’s tax base, ownership and use of the park-and-ride and long-term maintenance costs for streetscape elements and lighting.

Metro Transit and the consulting team showed animated renderings of five stations that will sit in the roadway median in parts of Brooklyn Park, and described streetscape elements such as widened sidewalks and trails, boulevard trees, pedestrian lighting and concrete…