GROUP WOULD SEEK PARK, SLOW DOWN TO CITY DECISION PROCESS ON MISSISSIPPI DUNES PROPERTY

by Joseph Back

The truth can be painful, but it also brings with it an opportunity for amendment. With a master plan now in view down at Mississippi Dunes, the cat is officially out of the bag. There WILL BE MEDIUM-DENSITY HOUSING on the south side of the tracks at Mississippi Dunes—but don’t just take our word for it. Check with the city’s own documents for the Master Plan at Mississippi Dunes. With feedback now accepted online through https://gis.isginc. com/storymaps/Mississippi-Dunes and the city adamant that is doesn’t have either the money to purchase the site or else change the developer’s mind on same, the somewhat controversial Dunes housing project, appears to be inevitable.

Nevertheless, and in a bid to see what if anything might still be possible in terms of preserving the Mississippi Dunes property for a nature park, Friends of the Mississippi River as a city-acknowledged stakeholder along with concerned Cottage Grove neighbors held a get together September 28 at the picnic shelter in Hamlet Park, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

In attendance for the City were mayor Myron Bailey, council member Justin Olsen and council vice president Steve Dennis.

Among those in attendance and speaking for Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) as a city-acknowledged stakeholder were FMR Conservation Director Betsy Daub, FMR River Corridor Director Colleen O’Connor Toberman, and FMR Executive Director Whitney Clark.

Also speaking at the September 28 meeting was concerned resident Cole Williams, who is active in the matter. FMR Conservation Director Betsy Daub spoke first asking who had been to the site when it was a golf course – many had. Daub gave her thoughts from the conservation angle.

“It’s not often that you get 180 acres in the Twin Cities on the river” to consider recreation and other opportunities, she shared. “So the size right away was pretty special to us,” Daub said of the Dunes property and its location along the river. “And not just the river, but gently sloping down to the river.”

Going on to say that the site provided an opportunity for people “to really engage with the river,” Daub noted that it also provided river access, “which the city of Cottage Grove really lacks.”

Speaking next in the meeting order after Daub was Whitney Clark, with almost 28 years as FMR Executive Director. Early on in her tenure, Clark said the Friends of the Mississippi River had identified Pine Bend Bluffs as another “amazing natural area that had a lot of ecological value, all in private ownership. Through collaboration with the DNR, the Friends of the Mississippi River had made Pine Bend Bluffs Scientific and Natural Area a reality, with the Pine Bend Bluffs SNA a success visible from Mississippi Dunes all the way to Hastings, or around the river bend. Another special project the organization had been involved with was the William H. Houlton conservation Area at Elk River, a 330-acre former farm and floodplain forest that Clark said the City of Elk River had decided was special enough to keep. “It’s a city-owned park conservation area,” Clark said of the William H. Houlton site, “and we were able to utilize state dollars and some private resources to get that protected,” she said. Friends of the Mississippi River had been working with Elk River for the last five or six years to develop a resource management plan for the site just under 46 miles from Mississippi Dunes, measure in a straight line from entrance gate to entrance gate via Google. With the Mississippi River a major flyway for many bird species, having an adequate rest stop area on the journey was important, with housing and development otherwise coming right up to the border of the William H. Houlton site at Elk River, itself next door to the Bailey Point Nature Reserve just to the east.

Following upon Clark for the night’s speakers was Cottage Grove concerned resident Cole Williams, who led discussion for a possibility known as Low-Impact Development (LID), along and the unique challenges that a development at Mississippi Dunes would entail. First up, the sandy slope!

“The one thing I want to mention is the Dunes site is very unique and it has a lot of things going for it that make it a kind of difficult development site,” Williams said. “The grade, we’re still in the nine-mile Mississippi Gorge,” he said, then explaining. “There’s a lot of sand.”

With this in mind and the general site gradient sloped towards the river, “it’s going to increase the stormwater demands of the site,” he shared,” with Low-Impact- Development a better fit for the environment as such. Going into an explanation of Low Impact Development, Williams said the goal was to reduce human impact, and that such plans could actually save developers money in the end.

“The goal is to reduce impervious surfaces, conserve natural area, and use the existing area to treat stormwater runoff ideas,” he said. One place in Eagan that Williams had seen had no parking spots or sidewalks. Another city (“I think it’s Saint Paul”) had a green street handbook, Williams said, and had decided to move forward as a city with a green street outlook.

Turning next to flood issues after a speaker brought up the famed flood of 1965 and seasonal river rise with Mooers Lake flooding “almost every year,” Williams said this would happen again, thanks to global warming.

“Yes and it will happen again,” he said of the flood that reportedly covered a nearby bridge in water to the upper steel bar. “We’re getting warmer and wetter, so there will be those hundred- year, plus there will be those 150-year floods,” he said. A 100-year flood takes its name from the one percent probability (0.01) that it will take place in any given year. A 150-year flood, meanwhile, would have a chance of 0.015 for any given year, not necessarily spaced apart equally in occurrence – that’s not how nature tends to work. As to the Dunes themselves, it was said that vegetation was the main thing holding them together, and that taking this away for development would lead to an erosion nightmare, no matter how one looked at it.

Other comments brought up at the meeting including that of the Dunes being unaffordable housing, and the fact that Planet Earth was going to be unlivable with the current state of things.

“While you guys are going home to your mansions, there are people in this town who are below the poverty line, not knowing where their next meal is coming from sleeping at those parks,” one public attendee said, addressing city officials. “Those parks are a very, very fundamental part of our community for the fact that those people that are living below the poverty line. We look for those for community, for resources. I have known so many people, so many children that sleep in parks, and there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be able to try to create something that can benefit them instead of shun them down more and just suppress them and create the crime that we do in this city,” including overdoses at schools like Park High. “We should be protecting each other,” they said.

After the Hamlet Park meeting was over, FMR River Corridor Director O’Connor Toberman had the following to say regarding the September 28 meeting at the picnic shelter in Hamlet Park.

“We were excited to see so many community members engaging deeply with this important Cottage Grove decision, “she said, “including Mayor Bailey, Council member Olsen, and Council member Dennis. As many people said at the event, it will impact not only today’s residents but future generations to come. While we wouldn’t want to represent the views of everyone present, we can say that there seemed to be a general consensus, at least among attendees, that the city should explore ways to slow the process down to consider a wider range of possibilities for preserving parkland and reducing the environmental impacts of development,” she went on. “With time comes additional opportunities: to consider and potentially find additional funding to enlarge the planned park portion, to support creative eco-friendlier developments, even to leverage the park to enhance our local economy.

If community members, local decision-makers and FMR had more time to work together before a development plan is approved, we could really expand the realm of what’s possible when it comes to this unique riverfront natural area and hidden gem.”

Among handouts at the Hamlet Park meeting included one with a visual of what Low Impact Development or LID might look like, with a more compact development footprint to minimize the environmental impact. Another handout at the Hamlet Park meeting, had the following question posed: “What would you like to see in housing development surrounding the park?” it asked. “Would you like the city to consider higher-density housing (townhomes or apartments instead of single- family homes) if it made a larger park possible?” If housing is outside the city’s power or else will to change, what’s the plan exactly?

Somewhat conflicted, if the “opportunities and considerations” section of the online master planning. Listed last among these are the following: Provide amenities and recreational activities to encourage people of all abilities to engage with the river and nature.

Identify interpretive and educational opportunities to highlight the natural resources and cultural history of the land.

Provide enhanced natural landscape to create additional riverfront habitat.

Utilize the site as an opportunity to connect to other surrounding recreational areas and water trails.

Listed above these under ‘opportunities and considerations” for the site located with nearby burial mounds and home to a Dakota village as recently as 1837 on Lower Grey Cloud Island, are the following: Utilize existing vehicular roadway corridor for future development and park access.

Existing mature native plant communities should be protected and seen as an asset.

Use elevation change and existing grades throughout site to take advantage of viewsheds, stormwater conveyance, and to establish a greenway trail corridor network.

Going forward then, these are some dates that residents should know about for the Master Plan being prepared by ISG as city-approved planner:

• City open house about the Mississippi Dunes Master Plan October 7, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at City Hall Parks Commission meeting November 8, 7:00 p.m. at City Hall (will make recommendation on master plan) City Council meeting November 17, 7:00 p.m. at City Hall (will vote on master plan): Notification by mail of those within 500 feet and posting in the Pioneer Press as the city’s official paper for public legal notices as such.

Watch for future city meetings about future steps in development: comprehensive plan amendment, zoning amendment, environmental assessment, subdivision plat, etc. (taken from handout) Those wishing to write to or contact city staff on the matter of Mississippi Dunes may do so as follows: Mayor Myron Bailey: [email protected] gov Councilmember Steve Dennis: [email protected] Councilmember Justin Olsen: [email protected] gov Councilmember La Rae Mills: [email protected] gov Councilmember Dave Thiede: [email protected] com Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director: [email protected] cottagegrovemn.gov As of early Tuesday morning, a petition at change.org to the City Council for Mississippi Dunes had the signatures of 2,155 people who do not want ANY development of Mississippi Dunes. That petition, should others wish to sign it, is entitled “Protect the Mississippi River. Save the Mississippi Dunes!”

So is there any chance of residents getting what they want via City purchase of the site for a park instead of housing? That depends on both Council priorities and leadership in the matter, but for now, know this: there will be medium-density housing near the railroad tracks at the Dunes, per city plan documents currently posted online for comment, and in spite of council members expressing the preference to the site’s developer that they preferred “single-family houses” below the railroad tracks.

Some historical patterns it would seem, just won’t change – like the housing now all but manifestly destined, for the Dunes.

Friends of the Mississippi River held a meeting September 28 at the Hamlet Park picnic shelter in conjunction with concerned city residents. Submitted photo.

Friends of the Mississippi River held a meeting September 28 at the Hamlet Park picnic shelter in conjunction with concerned city residents. Submitted photo.