One Southside Green Infrastructure and Healthy Habitat

Southside Community Health Services is developing One Southside, a new health campus along a busy corridor in a Minneapolis Green Zone. Grant funding from MWMO will provide a signature water feature, native habitat landscaping, and other green stormwater infrastructure to treat and manage stormwater while creating a healing outdoor oasis that promotes community well-being and environmental education.

The site is in Minneapolis’ South Side Green Zone, an area identified as disproportionately impacted by generational pollution, adverse health conditions, and poverty. This $22 million campus development will transform 1010 East Lake Street, the site of a Dollar Store burned down during the civil unrest in 2020, into a community clinic and wellness center. MWMO grant funds will be used to support final design and construction of stormwater infrastructure and pollinator and wildlife habitat on the site’s private and public spaces.

The centerpiece will be a terraced water feature that treats stormwater and supports native vegetation for pollinator and wildlife habitat, using water recaptured from impervious surfaces on the site. A recirculating stormwater storage tank will supply the water feature and provide water for irrigation. Aggregate underground storage beneath permeable paver sidewalks will allow for stormwater infiltration, while the stormwater from the clinic and retail building roofs will be captured and routed into the terraced water feature. The project’s green infrastructure improvements will prevent approximately 200 pounds of total suspended solids (TSS) and 0.61 pounds in total phosphorus (TP) from flowing to the Mississippi River per year.

Beyond the impacts on water quality, the new landscape’s moving water, small waterfalls, seating areas, and plantings will combine to create a peaceful, meditative oasis for patients, staff, and the surrounding community, as well as provide welcome green space at a formerly blighted site.