BEEHIVE PARKS UPDATE
By Bob Reiss From the Re-Echo, Summer 2005

The upgrade of Highway 100 from Highway 394 to 36th Street in St. Louis Park had been tentatively scheduled for 008, but recent action by the 2005 legislature means that it might be delayed until 2014.  The Twin West Chamber of Commerce has been meeting with the City of St. Louis Park to encourage the legislature to rethink this date.  In addition, there has been discussion about temporarily adding additional lanes instead of a complete update.

The Historical Society has been attending meetings with MnDOT for years.  These meetings have been mostly informational, but based upon this information gleaned, the Society is making some suggestions about what it thinks could be done.  Current plans for the upgrade do not include any change to the park located on Highway 7, but the Minnetonka Blvd. site cannot be saved.

The Highway 7 site borders the Southwest hiking/biking trail and could be made accessible from the trail.  It could be a resting place for the users, particularly if a well and water were made available.  This park originally included a well, but one does not currently exist.  Under the upgrade plans for Highway 100, there would be little benefit to MnDOT to maintain this park.  This would be better handled by Hennepin County or the City.

The two parks are part of the National Register of Historic Places, which must be considered in any changes that are made.  The Historical Society would like to see the few remaining structures at the Minnetonka site moved to the Highway 7 site.  This would be more significant than moving them to some other site, such as Wolfe or Jorvig Parks.

The disposition of the park problem is really insignificant in the overall Highway 100 plan.  MnDOT would probably be happy if the problem could be solved before the main work starts.  It has people and departments to just work on problems like this.  It also has funds allocated for highway beautification and projects.  The Historical Society would like to see some civic or neighborhood organization take on this project and see if they could push the right buttons at MnDOT.




 

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