Panel begins work on proposal to create new state park at State Capitol honoring Hortmans

A working group tasked with making recommendations for a proposed new state park within the Capitol Area met for the first time Wednesday.

The park would be named for the late Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed in June 2025.

“Speaker Hortman had a great love for the Capitol building and the Capitol campus,” House DFL Caucus Leader Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids) told the Melissa and Mark Hortman Memorial State Park Working Group. “On long sessions, she was known to walk the grounds. If you joined her, she would share her opinions, both positive and negative, about the way the grounds were kept and what trees were there in particular. She had a very strong feeling about the trees.”

More broadly, Hortman wanted the Capitol to be accessible to the public and for people to understand and appreciate its history as much as she did. Turning the Capitol Area into a state park was her long-term goal to make it even more accessible to people, Stephenson said, and seeing that through would be a way to preserve her legacy.

Rep. Peter Fischer (DFL-Maplewood), who sponsored the 2026 bill to establish the group, was elected chair during its organizing meeting Wednesday. Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) was elected as the working group’s vice chair.

The group plans to meet every three weeks on Wednesdays with possible future meeting topics focused on sustainable funding, public safety, public input, Capitol architect Cass Gilbert’s vision for the property, state park regulations, and the feasibility of creating a state park.

The working group’s statutory directive is to make recommendations that include funding for establishing and maintaining the park, with a report of its recommendations due to the Legislature by Feb. 1, 2027. The recommendations must also include assigning responsibilities to entities for the education programming, interpretive services and public engagement activities at the park.

The group’s creation, along with $86,000 for administrative costs, was included in the Legislature’s 2026 omnibus state government policy and finance law.

In addition to eight legislators, representatives from the Department of Administration, Minnesota Historical Society, Department of Natural Resources, the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, Gov. Tim Walz’s office and the City of St. Paul sit on the working group.

Agencies provided a brief overview Wednesday of their current role in the Capitol Area. The Minnesota Historical Society oversees the Capitol building as one of its state historic sites and offers visitor programming in the Capitol. The Department of Administration is the landlord for the buildings and parking in the Capitol Area, providing maintenance and operations of the buildings and grounds. The Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board guides the planning, design and preservation of the Capitol Area. The Department of Natural Resources doesn’t currently have a role in the Capitol Area.