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"Ott <br />-z1�ENf HILLS <br />CITY OF ARDEN HILLS <br />COUNTY OF RAMSEY <br />STATE OF MINNESOTA <br />RESOLUTION NO.2023-018 <br />Attachment A <br />RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE USE OF DISCRIMINATORY <br />COVENANTS, DISCHARGING DISCRIMINATORY COVENANTS ON <br />CITY -OWNED PROPERTY, AND APPROVING PARTICIPATION IN <br />THE JUST DEEDS COALITION <br />WHEREAS, discriminatory covenants were tools used by real estate developers to prevent <br />BIPOC and non-Christian individuals from buying or occupying property in certain areas, and they <br />were common throughout the United States from the early 1900s to the 1960s; and <br />WHEREAS, the purpose of discriminatory covenants was to explicitly exclude BIPOC <br />and non-Christian individuals from living in Arden Hills. These tools segregated the metro area <br />and built a hidden system of apartheid; and <br />WHEREAS, in 2016, the University of Minnesota founded Mapping Prejudice to expose <br />the racist practices that shaped the landscape of the metro area. Mapping Prejudice researched <br />restrictive covenants in Hennepin County and created the first -ever comprehensive map of racial <br />covenants in an American county. The project mapped 24,131 covenants in Hennepin County, and <br />over 2,000 covenants in Ramsey County; and <br />WHEREAS, it is historically understood that local leaders knew about the use of <br />discriminatory covenants and sanctioned their use. While no specific examples could be located <br />in City of Arden Hills records, such covenants were used before Arden Hills was incorporated as <br />a city; and <br />WHEREAS, the City of Arden Hills may own parcels of land that contain a discriminatory <br />covenant; and <br />WHEREAS, restrictive covenants are no longer enforceable. Legal efforts to eliminate <br />Discriminatory Covenants include Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948), in which the United <br />States Supreme Court prohibited courts from enforcing Discriminatory Covenants and the <br />Minnesota legislature in 1953 enacted statutes that prohibited new covenants, but existing <br />covenants were still legal in Minnesota until 1962; and <br />WHEREAS, as a result of these judicial and legislative actions, today, Minnesota law and <br />federal law prohibit discrimination in the sale or lease of housing based on race, color, creed, <br />religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, <br />sexual orientation, or familial status and those state and federal prohibitions extend to the refusal <br />Page 1 of 3 <br />122315740 <br />